DISTANT LEARNING IN THE CONTEXT OF THE BRAZILIAN NATIONAL ELDERLY HEALTH POLICY: A COURSE EGRESSED STUDY

Abstract This article aims to analyse the effectiveness of a course in aging and health of elderly people as part of the implementation of the Brazilian National Elderly Health Policy (PNSPI), from the perception of health professionals egressed from the course. A self-responded electronic questionnaire was applied from July to October 2015, answered by 414 in 1,561 egresses. The outcome variable to measure the course effectiveness was the improvement in the performance of egresses in at least five in ten activities related to health of elderly as provided for in PNSPI. There was improvement in all PNPSI activities varying between 1.3 to 2.6 times pre and post course. Professional background, time working with elderly health and actual implementation of learning from the course were the aspects that explained better the improvement in PNSPI activities (trough logistic regression model). The course proved have been effective for the implementation of PNSPI activities, showing the potential of continuing education to enforce public policies.