Quality of life and interdisciplinarity: the necessity of home care programs in the prevention of complications in old people with dysphagia

DOI: 10.15343/0104-7809.200933.3.8

Abstract

Changes of the age and demographic profiles of the population evidence alterations in the aging process regarding nutritional
and phonoaudiologic condition. Old people with dysphagia become more fragile and may present complications such as aspiratory
pneumonia and alterations in food ingestion that may compromise their health. A health assistance alternative is home care services
that use technical support of an interdisciplinary team to take care in a global way of individuals having difficulties to arrive at ambulatory
services. This work aims to show the importance of early diagnosis and intervention in old people with dysphagia, in an attempt
to improve nutritional condition and quality of life, thus diminishing health complications for a group participant of a Home Care
Program in São Paulo City. On the basis of a of quantitative-qualitative field study using an analytical descriptive method, we observed
that early intervention of the care team produced some improvement in the nutritional and phonoaudiologic profiles of subjects in
the sample, but not a statistically significant association between variables “consistencies of foods” and “modifications from pre- and
post-intervention nutritional diagnosis (p > 0,10).