Evaluation of senior citizens' satisfaction in primary health centres as assessment of the academic model.

CONTEXT: Satisfaction is nowadays a valid measure of quality of care. Senior citizens are increasing in Chile and their treatment in primary care clinics, as well as the education of new professionals must take into consideration their special characteristics. GOAL: Our intention was to investigate the degree of satisfaction senior citizens had with their health service and to identify those aspects able to be modified at the Medical Faculty in order to improve education of health professionals. APPROACH: Three hundred elderly attending Primary Care Outpatient Clinics of the city of Temuco, Chile, were interviewed using a satisfaction questionnaire developed by the Medical Outcomes Study carried out in USA. FINDINGS: Senior citizens experience a high level on dissatisfaction with the health care they receive at the primary level. Doctors and nurses had a high qualification in relation to their technical skills, but a lower score if considering the education and information they give to patients. These results shall be used in order to modify attention to senior citizens as well as to include problems related to this group in the curricular reform plan and to improve attitudes of nursing and medical students.

[Evaluation of mental and communication functions in mapuche and non mapuche elderly subjects in rural communities in Southern Chile]. / Valoración de las funciones mentales y la comunicación en adultos mayores mapuches y no mapuches en áreas rurales del sur de Chile.

BACKGROUND: The main predictors of functional impairment in the elderly are alterations in mental or communication functions. AIM: To study mental and communication functions in rural elderly subjects of Mapuche and non Mapuche origin. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Elderly subjects coming from a rural Mapuche community and a non Mapuche community were studied. Subjects were interviewed at their homes. The communication and mental function assessments of the Functional Autonomy Measurement System were applied. RESULTS: Fifty one Mapuche and 49 non Mapuche subjects with a mean age of 71 +/- 7 and 74 +/- 8 years respectively, were studied. Fifty four percent were female and 31% were illiterate. Twenty six percent had impairment in mental functions. The item with the highest difficulty was memory. The visual function was the most severely impaired among communication items. Mapuche elderly subjects had significantly higher degrees of impairment in mental and communication functions. CONCLUSIONS: There is a higher degree of mental and communication impairment among rural Mapuche elderly subjects than in their non Mapuche counterparts.