Community care unit and elderly health promotion: an intervention program

Background: Healthy aging is assumed as a challenge of modern societies, yet not having enough concerns for this age group in health promotion programs. Objetives: Describe the relevant data of the profile to the elderly of a UCC of the north of Portugal to guide us to an intervention program in the promotion of healthy lifestyles. Methodology: Quantitative, descriptive and exploratory study, with a sample of 1,522 elderly subjects of a northern municipality of Portugal. Results: The studied sample shows moderate self-care dependency, being skeletal disease and osteoarticular the most frequent pathology found, followed by endocrine and cardiovascular diseases. Most of the subjects adopt unhealthy lifestyles habits while existing differences between both genders. Conclusion: These findings show existing characteristics on the elderly that can be the target of an early intervention by rehabilitation nurses. This could be done through a specific health promotion program that can respond to the identified health needs.