Perfil das condutas alimentares de idosos com delirium durante a internação hospitalar

Abstract

It is common that patients with delirium present feeding difficulties due to temporary cognitive alterations: resistance to food, inability to adequately handle the bolus and aspiration of the food during swallow. The objective was to describe the speech therapy procedures regarding eating, established for elderly hospitalized with a diagnosis of delirium, and to assess the occurrence of aspiration pneumonia during the period of hospitalization of each subject. In order to do this, we studied 33 health records of patients between 60 and 90 years of age who were hospitalized at the Geriatric Ward. The selection of patients who presented delirium was carried out through the speech therapy database. The data were then gathered into a protocol and divided into: population profile; observation of the speech therapy procedures carried out and occurrence of aspiration pneumonia. The data were submitted to statistical analysis. Concerning the population profile, the results showed that 51,5% were male; 36,4% were between 81 and 90 years old; 54,5% were hospitalized between 1 and 15 days; 39,4% had delirium between 1 and 7 days; and 57,6% were discharged from hospital. Regarding the speech therapy procedures, 36,4% used oral feeding; 94,7% ingested geriatric food of pureed consistency; 54,4% were dependent for positioning; 100% of the patients did not present aspiration pneumonia. We can conclude that it is possible to feed patients with delirium orally, provided that they do not present risk of aspiration and have a daily follow-up from the speech therapist.