Famílias com um idoso dependente: avalia？？o da coes？o e adapta？？o

the aim of this study was to describe the typological profile and developmental stage of families that take care of an elderly dependent person; to identify the degree of dependency of the elderly person in the family context; and to evaluate cohesion and adaptation in families with a dependent elder. methodologically, the study is positioned in the quantitative paradigm, and is a descriptive exploratory study. we administered a questionnaire, which included faces iii and the barthel index, to a group of families registered at health centers or family health clinics in a district in the north of portugal. we chose a purposive sample of 108 families with an elderly dependent member. data collection occurred from october 2007 to june 2008. from data analysis, we verified that families that include an elderly person at a high level of dependence are nuclear families and are in the final phase of development of the life cycle. they consider themselves cohesive and adapted families but ideally would like more cohesion and adaptation.