What is a geriatric assessment?

A geriatric assessment is a comprehensive assessment designed to evaluate the patient’s cognitive function, social ability, and mental and emotional capacity.

These assessments have numerous benefits, such as the following:

• Better clinical outcomes and enhanced medical care for the patient.
• Improved and accurate forms of diagnosis.
• Low mortality
• Improved cognitive function.

What does geriatric care involve?

Geriatric care aims to provide the highest quality, cost-effective and safest medical care to ageing patients. Older individuals are faced with several health issues, including multiple chronic health conditions and functional, cognitive, and social issues.

Therefore, geriatric care focuses on the following aspects:

• Diagnosis of health conditions affecting the elderly involves monitoring current health issues and determining the causes of these conditions.
• Therapeutic treatment entails honing on specific treatments to resolve health conditions.
• Preventative healthcare involves circumventing potentially life-threatening illnesses by diagnosing issues early on.
• Rehabilitation involves administering various forms of treatments with the intent of diagnosing, managing, and treating a particular ailment.

What types of conditions are older people more prone to?

Older populations are more susceptible to the following conditions:

• Diabetes is a chronic ailment that arises from poor or inefficient use of the hormone insulin, which is an essential hormone that controls blood glucose levels.
• Cardiovascular disease is a type of illness that targets the heart and surrounding blood vessels. Unfortunately, cardiovascular disease, which refers to a broad scope of heart conditions, arises from one of the following:
  • Restriction of the heart’s blood vessels
  • Congenital heart and blood vessel problems
  • Malfunctioning heart valves
  • Inconsistent heart rhythms
• Hypertension develops when blood pressure levels rise considerably. As a result, the high force of blood pushes against the arterial walls, exerting pressure in the region. The consistent rise of blood can cause the arteries to become inelastic, prompting the following health conditions:
  • Angina
  • Heart attack or heart failure
• Dementia affects the individual’s ability to think clearly, recall information and make informed decisions. Dementia also affects memory, causing you to misplace car keys, struggle to remember phrases or words and forget the names of people or important events.
• Cancer refers to a scope of conditions that begin in any organ or bodily tissue, causing cells to mutate rapidly. As a result, these mutations can quickly travel, spreading to other regions of the body.
• Osteoporosis occurs from the weakening of the bones, which results in lower back pain, difficulty breathing and unhealthy alterations affecting your natural posture. Osteoporosis develops from weak or brittle bones, which is more likely to occur when the bone density decreases or the quality of the bone reduces considerably.
• Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that progressively becomes worse over time. As a result, you will notice a decline in memory, limited ability to hold a conversation and a poor response to your surrounding environment.
• Sudden falls may occur due to poor reflexes, poor eyesight or limited hearing capacity, all tell-tale signs of ageing.

Frequently asked questions