Evaluation of the presence of family caregivers of elderly with cognitive and functional deficits living in Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil

OBJECTIVE: Detect elderly with cognitive and functional decline living in the area covered by a basic health unit BHU in Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil, describe their profile and assess the presence of family caregivers. METHOD: Cross-sectional study from research of Programa de Educação pelo Trabalho em Saúde PET-Saúde, in the área of Elderly Health Care. From the whole sample, were selected for analysis elderly individuals with Mini-Mental State Examination MMSE less than 18, totaling 91 individuals. We analyzed age, gender, income, education, grip strength, living alone and having family caregiver. RESULTS: 25% of the subjects interviewed had MMSE less than 18. Among these, 80% were women, ages ranged between 60 and 96 years, 12% lived alone, 85% had no family caregiver. Overall, they had low levels of education and income; 52.31% of those who underwent handgrip strength measurement can be considered pre-frail. CONCLUSION: Most elderly in this study do not have family caregivers, in addition, there are elderly with cognitive and functional deficits living alone.