Gasto com a internação de idosos em unidades de terapia intensiva

Introduction: Population aging in Brazil underscores the need to discuss the proper management of the budget allocated in health field, especially in the sectors of high complexity, where coexist costly procedures, limited resources and the need for cost containment. In the other hand, demand is growing in a way directly proportional to the increase in the number of elderly in country. Objective: In this way, this research had as main objective to analyze the costs resulting from the admission of elderly in intensive care units (ICU) and its associated factors. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach and featured as a descriptive and exploratory research. Data were collected from medical records of elderly hospitalized in ICU from a brazilian city called Natal-RN, between november first, 2013 and january, 31 of 2014. The variables collected relate to the socio demographic profile, morbidity framework and characterization of hospitalization. The dependent variable was categorized by quartile 75 in high and low expense of hospitalization and submitted to chi-square test with the independent variables of the survey. Associations with p value <0.20 in the bivariate analysis were submitted to the technique of multiple logistic regression. We opted for the construction of three regression models from the above algorithm: general regression model, composed by all 493 hospitalizations in the study, other made with 181 individuals admitted in health public system (SUS) and a third one related to 312 cases from private service in health area. Results: In the general regression model, the variables respiratory diseases, hospitalizations in the private system, disoriented patient and previous stroke were associated with greater probability of high spending in the ICU. In the other hand, in SUS kind of hospitalizations, this probability was associated with disoriented patient, 80 years old or more, sepsis and admission for clinical reason. In the cases from the private network health, the high expenditure was associated with respiratory disease, mechanical ventilation, hospitalization for clinical reason and disoriented patients. Conclusion: The increased expenditure on hospitalization of elderly in intensive care depends on the clinical conditions of individuals. This highlights the importance of avoiding hospitalizations due to diseases sensitive to primary care by health preventive actions and providing comprehensive care to the elderly. In addition, obtaining different explanatory models, according to kind hospital funding, demonstrates the importance of the organization in health services related to composition of costs of hospitalization among the elderly. Another question founded was the need that to improve the funding, we must use rationally the available resources by avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations of elderly people in the extremes of severity. On this kind of precarious funding, ICU hospitalization of elderly non-critical or in a terminal state can compromise the quality of services provided to those who really need intensive care.