Acesso aos serviços de fisioterapia e sua utilização por idosos com dor lombar

• Main Authors: Juleimar Soares Coelho de Amorim, Silvia Lanziotti Azevedo da Silva, Leani Souza Máximo Pereira, Rosângela Côrrea Dias
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade Nove de Julho 2013-01-01
• Series: ConScientiae Saúde
• Online Access: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=92929899006

The aging of the Brazilian population brings challenges and de - mands for rehabilitation services. Objective: To evaluate the access of the elderly with low back pain to outpatient physical therapy services as well as their use of and satisfaction with these services. Methods: A longitudinal study was per - formed with a number of elderly persons who were divided into three groups and evaluated through in-person and telephone interviews (follow-up 1 after six weeks and follow-up 2 after three months). Results: Out of the 76 participants, 85.5% were not users of the service; 61.8% were referred by a doctor. After three months, the main reasons for not doing physiotherapy were: waiting queue (34%), resting (30.2%) and use of analgesics (50%). Among those who had access, sat - isfaction was rated good to excellent. The Anova showed no significant differ - ence between the three groups in relation to the analyzed variables. Conclusion: There was a high level of difficulty in getting access to physical therapy because of the waiting queue.