Literacia para a saúde do cuidador informal na pandemia de COVID-19 no contexto amazônico

Abstract

Introduction: It is a priority to include the health literacy of informal caregivers in public health policies, with potential benefits for the health of the caregiver and the care provided to the elderly. This study aimed to evaluate the health literacy of informal caregivers of elderly people cared for in a university hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Cross-sectional, observational, descriptive, correlational and quantitative approach with 37 informal caregivers of elderly people treated at the Geriatrics Service of the Hospital Universitário João de Barros Barreto. The following instruments were used: sociodemographic and European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire. For data processing and analysis, we used the statistical programs Epi Info version 7.2.5.0 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, United States) and GraphPad Prism version 8. Regarding descriptive statistics, the following were performed: absolute and relative frequencies for all variables and, in the case of numerical variables, we calculate the mean, median, standard deviation, minimum and maximum, with their respective 95% Confidence Intervals. In inferential statistics, the non-parametric chi-square tests of adherence were applied for univariate categorical comparison and G test for bivariate categorical comparisons. Considering the numerical comparisons, ANOVA 1 criterion was used since they met the assumptions of normality (assessed by the Bartlett test). An alpha statistical significance level of 5% was considered for all analyzes carried out. Results: Of the 37 informal caregivers, they were women (91.8%) with an average age of 48 years, married (62.1%), with high school education (43.2%), living in the same house with the elderly person being cared for (45, 9%) with good health status (54.0%) self-report that the provision of care to the elderly was not affected (56.7%), they take care of one person (45.9%), their father/mother (64 .8%). As for the elderly people cared for, the majority were women (72.9%) with an average age of 78.2 (±13.2) years. The LS of informal caregivers was 21.7, proving to be inadequate. The domain with the best score was “Health Promotion” (23.6) and “Disease Prevention” (20.1), the worst. Conclusion: The results showed that the health literacy of informal caregivers is inadequate, highlighting the need for educational actions for this population with a view to improving the care provided to elderly people.