Perception of health and nutritional status of hospitalized patients with chronic diseases

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic noncommunicable diseases (CNCD) can significantly affect the quality of life of individuals affected. Therefore, self- perception of health becomes an important indicator, since it enables the understanding of health status and the decision-making. Objective: To evaluate the self-perception of health, nutritional profile and risk factors in hospitalized patients with chronic diseases. Methods: A crosssectional study carried out with 56 patients, adults and elderly, in a hospital in Guarapuava-PR. For data collection was adapted the instrument Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief IPQ), to evaluate the individual's perception of their disease, their nutritional status and acceptance of  the hospital diet. The Shapiro-Wilk test was applied for normality of the variables, and Pearson's correlation and Student's T for association between these variables. Results: The mean age was 63.8±4.7 years and the most prevalent clinical diagnosis was pulmonary disease (41.1%), followed by type 2 diabetes mellitus (21.4%) and arterial hypertension (17.9%). According to the BMI, underweight was observed in 28.6% and overweight in 21.5% of the sample. As for the Brief IPQ, 73.2% of the patients classified their health as good. The minority of the patients (28.6%) considered themselves completely responsible for their health. Concerning the disease, 33.9% of the patients said they were extremely worried and 14.3% said they were not worried. Conclusion: The majority of participants were malnourished, considered their health to be good and believed that the treatment could improve their health.