Determination of care dependence conditions in elderly patients undergoing surgery

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTİVE: Although it is known that the need for care and hospitalizations are increasing in parallel with the increasing number of diseases and disabilities, the prolongation of life expectancy and the increase in the elderly population also lead to an increase in the number of surgical interventions for the elderly. In this context, this study was planned to determine the care dependency status of elderly patients undergoing surgical intervention. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study population consisted of patients aged 65 and over who had undergone surgical intervention in the surgical clinics of Sakarya Training and Research Hospital. The research sample consisted of 150 patients, 75 female and 75 male patients. Patients were interviewed using in the Personal Information Form and the Care Dependency scale in the postoperative period. The data were transferred to the IBM SPSS Statistics 26 program and completed. While evaluating the study data, frequency distribution (number, percentage) for categorical variables and descriptive statistics for numerical variables were given. Independent sample t-test was used to determine whether there was a difference between the two groups, and one-way analysis of variance (One Way ANOVA) was used to determine whether there was a difference between more than two groups. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between numerical measurements. Cronbach's alpha value was used for scale reliability. RESULTS: The age range of the participants is 70.7% between the ages of 65-74, 21.3% between the ages of 74-85, 8% between the ages of 85 and over, while the average age is 72.26±7.17 and the average body mass index (BMI) is 27.35± It is 5.86.Of the elderly patients who underwent surgical intervention, 50% were women, 50% were men, 62% were primary school graduates, 65.3% were married, 53.3% were working, 36.7% were smokers, and 9.3 of them were using alcohol. While the average hospital stay was 13.71±18.16, 37.8% were in general surgery, 26.4% were in orthopedics, and 17.6% were in gastro-oncology. He was lying in the service. While 86% of the patients had any chronic disease, the most common chronic disease was hypertension (78.7%). In addition, 17.3% had a history of previous surgical intervention and all of them had a permanent companion. The average score of the patients' care dependency scale is 56.02±16.98. In the study, alcohol use, presence of chronic disease, history of surgical intervention, BMI and length of hospital stay did not have an effect on care dependency; A significant difference was found between age, gender, education level, marital status, working or not working, smoking status and care dependency. CONCLUSION: As the age of geriatric patients who have undergone surgery increases, their need for care dependency increases at the same rate. In addition, being female, having a low level of education, being single, and being a patient in the neurosurgery and orthopedic wards also increase the level of care dependency. As a result, bio-psycho-social changes seen with advanced age affect the care dependency of patients before and after surgery, and healthcare professionals, especially nurses, who care for these patients need to consider the patient as a whole for geriatric patient care during the care process. Keywords: Care Depency, Surgical Intervention, Elderly Patient