Ser–pessoa–idosa com sequelas da covid-19: um estudo fenomenológico

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic is configured as the biggest public health challenge experienced in recent decades and although it represents an acute disease, most of those infected have experienced persistent symptoms and health consequences due to sequelae and complications. The objective of this research is to understand the meanings of the experience of being an elderly person with a sequel to Covid-19. Methodology: descriptive study with a qualitative approach developed at the Municipal Post-Covid-19 Reference Center in the municipality of São Luís, Maranhão. Elderly people were selected as an eligibility criterion who presented in their medical records a record of care by at least two professionals, among them the nurse, and a Post-Covid-19 Functional Status Scale (PCFS) score with a minimum value of one (1.0). Of the total of twenty-two (22) elderly people with PCFS greater than one (1.0), ten (10) elderly people participated in the phenomenological interview. The interview took place from May to July 2022 . The theoretical-methodological framework used was Martin Heidegger's Phenomenology. There was a predominance of age between 60 and 69 years, female, married/stable union and widows, retired, with income between 0 and 1 minimum wage. The most prevalent comorbidities were Systemic Arterial Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus. Most were sedentary, few were considered smokers, alcoholics and overweight. The understanding moment made it possible to identify six units of meaning: Being-ill-with Covid-19; The Physical Being with sequel of Covid-19; The Psychological Being with sequel of Covid-19; Being-dependent with Covid-19 sequel; The Being-with with sequel of Covid-19 and The Being-spiritual with sequel of Covid-19. The repercussions on physical and mental health and functionality put the elderly person in front of a new condition, a new Being-there with himself, with the world and with the other. It was understood that the sense of being-elderly-person with a sequel to Covid-19 revealed himself as resigned to the fact of existing, the being-there thrown into a world without choices, led the elderly person to experience the illness of the body by Covid-19, facing existential anguish generated by the pain and suffering of his clinical condition, insecurity and fear in relation to the future and the lives of those he loves. The Being-elderly-person with a sequel to Covid-19 was permeated by transformations in their daily life, awakening disturbing feelings such as insecurity, fear, frustration, sadness, anguish, loneliness. Spirituality and the family and social support network proved to be tools for coping with adversity, enabling resilience, improving well-being and quality of life. The elderly person who experienced, in their own, particular and singular way, the circumstances of the illness, sought in "themselves" possibilities to deal with negative feelings related to the sequelae of their disease, revealing that, even in the face of adverse situations caused by the sequelae of Covid-19, was the bearer of its own care. It is also noted that there are challenges in the complexity of health practices and in the completeness of care, especially in the concrete appreciation of the Being in its entirety .