Primary health care and violence against elderly people: integrative review

Abstract

Introduction: Population aging is a global reality. It is a natural process during the period of human development, characterized by progressive cell loss and functional decline of the organism, associated with a greater probability of living with chronic diseases and violence. Objective: To verify the scientific production regarding violence against elderly people in Primary Health Care spaces, positioned as the coordinator of the Unified Health System. Methodology: This is an Integrative Review study, whose methodology is based on Evidence-Based Practice, using the databases: Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval Online System (Medline) and Nursing Database (BDENF) and having as inclusion criteria articles published in the last 5 years (2018-2023), in Portuguese, English and Spanish. Results: Eight articles were selected for qualitative synthesis. The selected works indicate a level of evidence between 2, 4 and 5, that is, 62.5% of the findings have level of evidence 4, according to the Oxford Classification Center for Evidence-based Medicine. They were also grouped into thematic axes, namely: Violence and its manifestations, Professional training and its (dis)continuity, Care in Primary Health Care regarding situations of violence against the elderly and its impasses and Invisible caregiver health. Conclusions: It was possible to observe that there are public policies aimed at this problem (health and social), however, public services still timidly implement what is recommended by legislation. We found that there are proposed actions to care for this risk group, however, they need to be more effective and the continuing education strategy in these spaces could be a powerful resource for better care management.

Keywords: Elderly; Violence; Primary Health Care.