Introduction
Aging is an omnipresent reality in surgical population. Elderly’s access to health care demands specific strategies towards their autonomy.
Objective
Identify difficulties in access to health care of ophthalmic surgical elderly patients.
Materials and Methods
Prospective, descriptive/analytic study between July to October 2017. Sample: ophthalmic surgical patients with ≥65 years. Telephone interview.
Work instruments: Six Item Cognitive Impairment Test (CIT), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Hospital access questionnaire.
Demographic variables: age, sex, residence, scholarship and family and domestic profile.
Statistical analysis with SPSS, significant value with p<0,05.
Excluded: urgencies, cognitive and communicative deficits.
Results
From the initial 1195 patients, 773 didn´t answer the phone/wrong number. 24 were excluded for dementia/cognitive deficit (CIT>10). Final sample n=307, majority women 51,1%, average age 75 years, with basic scholarship, married, living together in rural residence.
Clinical profile: 80,5% without GDS score suggestive of depression; 76,2% are happy, 86,3% glad with their life, 92,5% don’t fell forsaken neither useless in 85,7%. 87,9% are autonomous in their roam.
Regarding access there’s an difficult (52,8%) and far (52,4%) parking lot, one small waiting room (61,9%) with few chairs (62,9%). Positively stands out the easiness in lift use (90,9%), the good route signalling (90,2%), health professional availability (84,7%) and quality and understanding of information given by those professionals (89,3%).
Significant association between GDS and gender (p=0,009) and family profile (p<0,001); women said more often they had greater score of GDS and unhappiness with life.
Patients with high DGS score had worse statistical significant answers relatively to health care professionals availability (p=0,022) and understanding of received information (p<0,001).
Conclusion
Identified limitative factors to health care access, mainly in proximity and installations. Generally patients are pleased with availability and suitability of health services and information.


06 / Ophthalmic surgical elderly patient access to health care