CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH CHAGAS DISEASE FOLLOWED BETWEEN 2005-2013 BY PHARMACEUTICAL CARE SERVICE IN CEARÁ STATE, NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL

By controlling the transmission of Chagas disease, the challenge of providing assistance to millions of infected patients that reach old age arises. In this study, the socioeconomic, demographic and comorbidity records of all elderly chagasic patients followed at the Pharmaceutical Care Service of t...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
Main Authors: Laíse dos Santos PEREIRA, Erlane Chaves FREITAS, Mônica Coelho ANDRADE, Darlan da Silva CÂNDIDO, José Damião da SILVA FILHO, Vladimir MICHAILOWSKY, Maria de Fátima OLIVEIRA, José Ajax Nogueira QUEIROZ
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 2015
Subjects:
Chagas disease
Elderly
Cardiac form
Comorbidities
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Infectious and parasitic diseases
RC109-216
Arctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1590/S0036-46652015000200008
https://doaj.org/article/c3d95bc6644d4edbbb2723980561f83c
Description
Summary:By controlling the transmission of Chagas disease, the challenge of providing assistance to millions of infected patients that reach old age arises. In this study, the socioeconomic, demographic and comorbidity records of all elderly chagasic patients followed at the Pharmaceutical Care Service of the Chagas Disease Research Laboratory were assessed. The information related to the clinical form of the disease was obtained from medical records provided by the Walter Cantídio University Hospital. The profile of the studied population was: women (50.5%); mean age of 67 years; retired (54.6%); married (51.6 %); high illiteracy rate (40.2%); and family income equal to the minimum wage (51.5%). The predominant clinical forms of Chagas disease were cardiac (65.3%) and indeterminate (14.7%). The main electrocardiographic changes were the right bundle branch block (41.0%), associated or not with the anterosuperior left bundle branch block (27.4%). The average number of comorbidities per patient was 2.23 ± 1.54, with systemic arterial hypertension being the main one found (67.0%). It was found that the elderly comprise a vulnerable group of patients that associate aging with cardiac and/or digestive disorders resulting from the evolution of Chagas disease and other comorbidities, which requires special attention from health services to ensure more appropriate medical and social care.

Similar Items