Assistência fisioterapêutica na atenção primária: visitas domiciliares visando a prevenção de quedas em idosos

Abstract

Falls in the elderly are a public health problem, which occur due to factors associated with aging such as weakness, deficits in balance, gait, inactivity and factors associated with the environment such as stairs, carpets, poor lighting, which lead the elderly to fall. Faced with this problem, primary care provides access to comprehensiveness, bonding, and longitudinality, physiotherapeutics in the health care network service operates in different ways, including home visits, an intervention that aims to strengthen the relationship with the patient and minimize the risk of falls in the home environment. The objective was to review studies related to physiotherapist assistance in preventing falls in elderly people through home visits in Primary Health Care. The method used in this work was an integrative bibliographical review, using materials from previously carried out qualitative research, of a basic nature, aimed at exploratory objectives. The inclusion criteria included articles from 2018 to 2023, in the Portuguese language, while the exclusion criteria were applied to articles not consistent with the theme and paid articles. In view of the results found, it was observed that physiotherapeutic assistance in primary health care was effective in relation to home visits, effective in preventing falls in the elderly, proving necessary for the population to have comprehensive monitoring of the primary care professional with the patient; therefore, further research is suggested addressing the applicability of physiotherapists in these services, for a better approach to the elderly.