RESUMO
The mental health of the elderly is a matter of increased concern in the context of an aging population since currently only a small fraction of this population is receiving adequate care. The provision of treatment in primary care by the General Practitioners (GPs) has been proposed for over a decade as a potential solution, as services offered by GPs are more accessible, less susceptible to stigma, and have a more comprehensive view of the other health care problems that the elderly might suffer from. In this study, we explored the perception of Romanian GPs regarding their practice and roles in caring for the mental health of the elderly as well as the willingness to increase their future involvement in the management of dementia and other mental health problems. Data was collected via an online questionnaire structured on four dimensions: (1) GPs' sociodemographic profile and practice characteristics, (2) GPs assessment of the services available for elderly with mental health problems, (3) GPs current involvement in mental health care for different categories of problems, and (4) factors that might influence the future involvement of GPs in providing care for elderly with mental health problems. The survey was sent via the member mailing lists of the National Society for Family Medicine. Results show that GPs are currently limited by prescribing possibilities, available resources and knowledge in the area, but they are willing to expand their role in the areas of early recognition and prevention of mental health problems as well as providing disease management and collaborative care. An improved communication with mental health care professionals, a better access to resources and having more financial incentives are the three most important categories for GPs to increase their involvement. In conclusion, increasing the access to personal and professional resources and setting up functional communication channels with specialized mental health care could motivate GPs to provide timely mental health support to elderly patients.
RESUMO
AIM: The objective of this paper is to present the profile of the Romanian hypertensive patient as revealed by the analysis of hypertensive subjects from SEPHAR II survey. METHODS: A total number of 798 hypertensive subjects identified by SEPHAR II survey were analyzed in terms of socio-demographic characteristics, cardiovascular risk factors, subclinical target organ damage, established target organ disease, total CV risk and HT awareness, treatment and control. The profile of the Romanian hypertensive patients was built using the mod of every above mentioned target variables. RESULTS: The majority of hypertensive subjects were females (54.9%), mean age of 57.42 +/- 13.38 years, coming from the South region (17.8%), living in urban areas (59.5%) and aware of their condition (69.5%), associating most often other 4 CV risk factors among which physical inactivity (67.3%), visceral obesity (60.4%) and hypercholesterolemia (61.3%) are the most prevalent, having therefore a very high added CV risk (60.3%). Despite the widespread use of at least 2 antihypertensive drugs (72.3%), an effective treatment was recorded only in a quarter of treated hypertensives. CONCLUSION: The profile of Romanian Hypertensive patient is: middle aged female living in urban area of the South region of the country, with secondary education and a low average income, sedentary lifestyle, nonsmoker and aware of BP values, having visceral obesity, a high total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels and normal HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels, having metabolic syndrome, nondiabetic and associating 4 other cardiovascular risk factors and therefore having a high added cardiovascular risk.