Profile of the disabled persons of the health program of the family of Guarapuava city in the state of Paraná

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to characterize the disabled persons assisted by Family Health Program in the city of Guarapuava, in the state of Paraná, and analyze a few variables that characterize this population. At the basic health care units of Guarapuava, 235 disabled people were interviewed two hundreds and thirty five handicapped people during the second semester of 2006. The questionnaire applied contained questions about identification and the person’s type of handicap. No meaningful difference between genders was observed, and the existence of handicaps in all ages was noticed. The majority of handicapped people have little study and low income. The most common handicap consisted of neurological problems (43.40%), followed by blindness (12.34%), deafness (8.94%), amputation (8.51%), among others that had lower prevalence, like orthopedic, mental and malformation handicaps. The majority of handicapped people use some kind of assistant device and a minority (4.26%) has physiotherapy treatment. This research does not take into account the profile of the entire city, but we must identify these people so that public social and health policies can protect them.