Ana Alexandre Fernandes

Elder Abuse in Portugal: Findings From the First National Prevalence Study

In this study, we present findings of the Portuguese national prevalence study, “Aging and Violence,” the purpose of which was to estimate the prevalence of abuse and neglect of older people in family settings over a 12-month period and examine the relationship between abuse and sociodemographic and health characteristics. Through a telephone survey of a representative probability sample (N = 1,123), we evaluated 12 abusive behaviors and demographic data. Overall, 12.3% of older adults experienced elder abuse in family settings. The prevalence rates of specific types were as follows: psychological, 6.3%; financial, 6.3%; physical, 2.3%; neglect, 0.4%; and sexual, 0.2%. Logistic regression was employed to determine the relationship between abuse and covariates. The study suggests that education level, age, and functional status are significantly associated with abuse. Accurate estimates of the prevalence of elder abuse and understanding of victim and perpetrator characteristics are fundamental to designing effective strategies for prevention and intervention.

Identifying Priorities for Aging Policies in Two Portuguese Communities

ABSTRACT The aging population has an impact on health, social, and economic issues in regard to individuals, communities, and organizations. The challenge for local policies in response to aging is to create sufficient resources to meet the population’s needs, wishes, and rights as people age. Active aging constitutes one of the guiding perspectives on policies. Taking into account the local governance perspective, the Model for Aging Local Policies Analysis (MALPA) was created in order to convert the active aging paradigm into a practical approach, as a technique to evaluate and analyze local aging policies. In this research, the MALPA instrument was applied in two Portuguese communities (Coruche and Oeiras). The objective was to identify the intervention priorities of aging policies in both communities, determining whether the instrument can facilitate the development of proposals for the improvement of local aging policies. It was possible to evaluate the communities and programs, identifying the least appropriate policy actions regarding the intervention priorities. The results allowed us to identify 10 priorities about collaborative governance, involvement of the elderly in the policy-making process, lifelong learning, economic hardship, policies for all ages, isolated vulnerable and fragile groups, intergenerational contacts, safety in all policies, labor opportunities, and conditions and transport network improvement.

Proposta de um Core Set Abreviado de Avaliação da Funcionalidade em Cuidados Pós-Agudos Geriátricos

Objetivo: Desenvolver um Core Set Geriátrico Abreviado para avaliação/intervenção da funcionalidade, em cuidados de reabilitação de contexto pós-agudo. Materiais e Métodos: Desenvolveu-se um estudo observacional do tipo analítico e longitudinal, que permitisse conhecer os domínios e as variáveis com maior valor preditivo e discriminativo relativamente à evolução da funcionalidade das condições de saúde observadas. Para a constituição da amostra consideraram-se os indivíduos com 65 ou mais anos, internados em unidades de Convalescença e Média Duração da Rede Nacional de Cuidados Continuados Integrados da região do Algarve. Resultados: A amostra foi constituída por 451 indivíduos, com uma média de idade 79,5 ± 7,5 anos, dos quais 62,1% eram mulheres. As condições de saúde com frequências mais elevadas como causa de admissão na Rede foram as fraturas da extremidade superior do fémur e os acidentes vasculares encefálicos que no seu conjunto equivaleram a 73,6% dos casos. Das 21 variáveis independentes que integraram os modelos explicativos da funcionalidade foi possível organizar uma listagem de 28 categorias: 5 Funções, 16 Atividades/Participação e 7 Fatores Ambientais. Conclusões: A presente proposta de Core Set Geriátrico Abreviado para os cuidados de reabilitação de contexto pós-agudo tem um enfoque sobretudo no componente Atividades/Participação, enquanto componente que materializa de forma concreta a interação do indivíduo com o meio e a sua vida real. A funcionalidade deve ser considerada uma variável incontornável da Saúde Pública pelo facto de permitir reproduzir as deficiências e limitações dos indivíduos, mas igualmente facilitar a alocação estruturada de equipamentos, serviços e sistemas, promotores da sua participação.

THU0622 Patient-centered aging biobanks - a survey on public perceptions and patient choice among rheumatology outpatients

Background Biobanks for research (BBR) are organized repositories of biological materials and associated health information with enormous potential and value for scientific research. In consonance with increasing attention to healthy aging research, BBR specifically oriented to chronic diseases and aging populations have gathered heightened attention. Public perceptions and patient choices are key to design, develop and implement patient-centered BBR. Public awareness, education and involvement are confidence building and unequivocally lead to higher participation in scientific enterprises. Objectives To assess patient awareness, perception and choices regarding aging biobanking activities. Methods We developed and applied a standard anonymous questionnaire to rheumatology terciary outpatients, aged 50 or older, between March-October 2016. Demographic data and perceptions about biobanking were collected. Data analysis was performed using Stata 14® software. Results We obtained a total of 131 valid responses [age (min-max, 50–93), mean (64); sex ratio (M/F) (40/91, 44%), education years (min-max, 0–20), mean (8.5)]. 69% of respondents did not know the specific term “biobank” but 57% were aware about the possibility of donating their biological material for research purposes. Furthermore, 77% of respondents indicated they were willing to contribute with their biological material to BBR, stating they had no particular preference whether these infrastructures were of private or public nature. However, they expressed a clear preference for these to be based at scientific research institutes (50%), instead of hospitals (23%), universities (16%) or biotechnology companies (7%). Moreover, respondents highlighted diferent requirements for their participation with anonymity (31%) and confidentiality (27%) ranking as top priorities. Most importantly, a majority of respondents (70%) expressed their agreement with a biobank exclusively dedicated to the study of aging, considering that people of older ages have higher disease burdens and that such research infrastructures and practices expressed respect for the particular problems of the elderly (Figure). Conclusions Our study constitutes a comprehensive assessment of public perceptions and patient choices regarding biobanks for aging research purposes among rheumatology outpatients. Although awareness is still suboptimal, BBR are highly regarded health infrastructures with enormous potential for further patient-centered development. Disclosure of Interest None declared