Introduction: Human aging is marked by a decrease in the performance of some daily tasks, some even considered banal and imperceptibly when this limitation is followed by chronic diseases, the elderly becomes a source of concern for the family. Objective:Identifying the health problems of the elderly living in long-stay institutions from self-reported diseases. This is a descriptive and quantitative study, conducted in northeastern Brazil capital, involving 138 elderly. For data collection we used a questionnaire containing demographic variables, institutional and related to self-reported health problems. Data were evaluated using bivariate analysis and association chi-square.Results: Predominance of women was found (61.6%), aged 60-69 years old (39.1%), coming from the state capital (51.4%), and institutional permanence time between 1-5 years (77.5%). The most frequent diseases were related to the cardiovascular system (15.9%) and endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (9.4%). It showed a significant association between self-reported diseases and the age of the elderly (p=0.047).

IntroductionThe care to the alcohol and/or other drugs’ user focuses on the logic of care for extended clinical and harm reduction, under the focus of the user and his family co-responsibility towards treatment.AimThis study aimed to understand the concept of self-care developed by drug users.MethodsIt is about a descriptive exploratory study with a qualitative approach. It was conducted in a center of psycho-social attention (CPSA), in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. The study participants were alcohol and/or other drugs users, over the age of 18 years, both sexes and were in treatment in the mentioned service in morning, afternoon and evening shifts. Data collection occurred in consultation records and individual interviews for the sample characterization, and three operating group sessions, one per shift, guided by the question: “what is self-care for you?” The interviews and sessions were audio-recorded, transcribed and submitted to analysis by ALCESTE software.ResultsIt was noted that self-care was conceptualized by the drug users from different points of view. For some, self-care is to self-protect, for others it means taking medications. The family, religion and CPSA were identified as a support network for the self-care maintenance. Furthermore, the self-care was related to the desire to recover losses.ConclusionThis study provided the understanding improvement of the self-care concept, supporting the care practice for the interventions planning, targeting the co-responsibility of the alcohol and/or other drugs users.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Objetivo: conhecer os sentidos e a imagens atribuídas por idosos longevos sobre a terminalidade do ciclo da vida.Metodologia: pesquisa descritiva, de abordagem qualitativa. A amostra composta por 30 idosos, acima de 80 anos. A coleta de dados realizada por meio de uma entrevista semiestruturada contemplando a caracterização sociodemográfica e questões referentes aos sentidos e imagens atribuídas a longevidade e a terminalidade da vida. Para análise dos dados qualitativos, utilizou-se o software IRaMuTeQ 0.7 alpha 3 e a Análise de Conteúdo Temática Categorial. Resultados:Os sentidos e as imagens atribuídos pelos idosos foram agrupados em 04 categorias simbólicas: dimensões sobre a terminalidade de vida; dimensões sobre a longevidade; atribuições associadas à velhice; sentidos associados às etapas do ciclo da vida.Conclusão: os sentidos e imagens do processo de fim de vida são ambíguos, ora expressando vontade de alcançar uma longevidade maior, ora sendo representada pelo sofrimento, doença e dor.

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Introduction: The aging is a process that can be either positive or negative. When a theme refers to positions or attitudes, social representations may comprehend and explain these phenomena.Objective: With the help of the bibliometrics research, the study focused on describing the scientific publications about social representations of aging, and investigating them. Method:Analysis of the available content in the online databases of the Virtual Library in Health, PubMed and Portal Capes, from 2010 to 2015. The keywords social representations and aging were used. By simple descriptive method, frequency and percentage, the following variables were described: authors; authors' education; maximum qualification of the authors; index H; authors' institution; journal; year of publication; journal's impact factor; research's place; research's development; research's objective; the most relevant results; and keywords. For graphical representation of conceptual maps of keywords the software CMap Tools version 5.03 was used and for the analysis of the objectives and the most relevant results the thematic content analysis technique was used.Results: A total of 127 scientific articles were found; after excluding those that were not in accordance with the chosen criteria, 42 files were found. One notices, regarding the authorship of the articles, a decentralization, with more authors from Northeast. The exploratory study and the mixed approach represented the most used research's method.