Essay On Frailty Assessment In Older Adults

Individual factors were found to be a predictor of functional limitation and frailty in older adults. Several studies showed that personal characteristics, such as ethnicity, female gender and age (Espinoza & Hazuda, 2015), gene (Interleukin-18 gene) (Mekli, Marshall, Nazroo, Vanhoutte, & Pendleton, 2015), education and health status, demonstrated an association with frailty (Chang et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2014; Fried et al., 2001; Mitnitski et al., 2015; Tocchi, 2015). Furthermore, it is clear that comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus (DM), stroke, hip fracture, history of coronary heart disease (CHD) and arthritis significantly increase the risk of frailty (Ambrose, Cruz, & Paul, 2015; Zaslavsky et al., 2013).

4. Shega, J. W., Dale, W., Andrew, M., Paice, J., Rockwood, K., & Weiner, D. K. (2012). Persistent Pain and Frailty: A Case for Homeostenosis. Journal Of The American Geriatrics Society, 60(1), 113-117. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03769.x

Today I spoke with a very outspoken neighbor of mine who was kind enough to participate in my assessment project. Iris L. is her name and she was born in March of 1940, which makes her 76 years old. She has lived in the small town of Archer Lodge, NC since she was born. She has been widowed for over 35 years and has one son who also lives five minutes away. She remains very active within the community but spends a majority of her time with her two grandchildren, ages 9 and 11. She has three sisters who all live within a few minutes of her home. She is active in her church and has lots of community friends that she assist in taking to appointments and says she also enjoys “feeding the shut-ins”. She is retired from a manufacturing job of 35 years but returned to work part-time at Dollar General approximately 8 years ago. She told me “if you don’t keep busy and active, you will go downhill quickly when you retire”.

In Chapter 15: Aging and the Elderly, the U.S. birth rate has been falling for more than a century. It happens because children are more likely to survive into adulthood, and so couple have fewer children. As more women work outside the home, they choose to have fewer children. Greater material wealth and advances in medicine have raised living standards so that people benefit from better housing and more nutrition. The oldest segment of the U.S. population, is increasing rapidly and is already forty times greater than in 1900.

The human organism is a collective structural and functional integrated system. It consists of many components; chemicals, cells, tissues, organs and systems. Atoms being the smallest unit of matter comprise the cell. Cells are the basic structural and functional units that build the body.

Bill presenting a physical, social and emotional weakness is obviously part of the symptoms to frailty due to his old age. The recognition of Bill to become frail in the nearest future will prevent adverse outcomes with multidisciplinary treatments. This will enable possible preventive intervention for the professionals. Frailty is considered to contribute to increased health risks which could result in falls, reduced mobility, less independence, and minimal physical activity (Fred et al., 2001). Considering the population prevalence and several possible outcomes, it is estimated that 3-5% of death in older adults could be delayed if frailty is prevented. Frailty assessment provides clinically important information on the survival of older adults (Shamilyan, 2013). An assessment process will need to recognise Bill’s physical and mental frailty. This will help to organise the care that Bill requires in terms of holistic, nutrition and medication management. These assessments will consider Bill’s physical, psychological, social,

The document Seniors and Aging – Osteoarthritis as part of the It’s Your Health newsletter was prepared by Health Canada in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada. The target audience of this document are the at-risk population of seniors in Canada, who are at an increased risk for developing osteoarthritis. The document emphases certain risk factors that increase the likelihood of getting osteoarthritis and highlights potential steps to decrease one’s likelihood of developing the condition. The majority of Canadians with osteoarthritis are above the age of seventy. Therefore, the purpose of the document is to decrease the prevalence of osteoarthritis by educating the population about risk factors for developing the condition.

Frailty develops when an older adult experiences a stressor and is unable to achieve a normal homeostasis accompanied by a decrease in several physiologic systems over a period of time. With a decrease in different physiologic systems, homeostatic reserves become depleted, resulting in a minor stressor causing a change in health status that is disproportionate to the stressor. For example,

‘Frailty thy name is woman' emotionally refers to his mother 'Hamlet' (Act 1, Scene 2). While the term “frailty” has been around for a while, the use of it in a medical literature has only been evolving in the past 30 years. However, condition with similar meaning, was described back in 1914 in a publication “The Diseases of Old Age and their Treatment” (Nascher, 1914). In this publication Nascher describes a condition of his elderly patients as “senile disability” or “senile cachexia” manifesting in general physical weakness and mental impairments as a result of the aging process. Later, several authors use term “Failure to Thrive” while describing a multifactorial state of decline in elderly (Kimball et al., 1995; Robertson et al., 2004; Sarkisian et al., 1996). The search term “frail elderly” in PubMed.gov generated 8384 results indicating great interest by clinicians and researchers in this topic. However, despite the interest there is considerable uncertainty regarding the concept and definition of frailty (Bergman et al., 2007). Frailty is “one of those complex terms – like independence, life satisfaction, and continuity – that trouble gerontologists with multiple and slippery meanings” (Kaufman, 1994).

As a paramedic you will be involved in transporting many people ie. such as people over the age of sixty five (frail aged). Explain why frail aged patients will be the future focus of paramedic work and discuss the personal attributes and skills needed to support patients at this stage of their lives. Utilising the language of social psychology.

Frailty is a common clinical syndrome in older persons that carries an increased risk of poor health outcomes. Frailty has been described as “a physiologic state of increased vulnerability to stressors that decrease physiologic reservoirs, resulting from aging and decrease function of multiple physiologic organs (1). The overall prevalence of frailty in USA community dwelling aged 65 or older in the United States ranges 7-12%. The prevalence of frailty increased with age from 3.9% in the 65-74 age group to 25% in the 85+group, and was greater in women than men (8% vs. 5%) (2).

Assessing and planning care of the elderly is important in enabling the older adult to have the best quality of life in their later years. Understanding their views on living day to day with what they hold dear, will help in planning care for the older person. In this paper, I will interview an older adult and describe various details as well as cultural relations surrounding my interviewed individual. I will perform functional assessments using the Tinetti, Katz, Home Safety, and Barthel tools, which will be included in the Appendix. I will compare any age-related changes and identify more than six preliminary issues that need to be addressed. Lastly, I will propose more than three alterations and

In the case of Anne Morrell there are several normal physiologically changes that impact her quality of life. Anne is experiencing normal aging related changes to her musculoskeletal system. Changes in musculoskeletal tissue occur through the loss of muscle mass and strength which replace lean body mass which fat and fibrous tissue. These changes in tissue cause a decrease in contractile muscle force with increased weakness and fatigue (Boltz, Capezuti, Fulmer, & Zwicker, 2012). As discussed in her case study she reports back pain when standing or walking for longer than 15 minutes, needs assistance with steps, ambulates with a cane since she fell last year which affects her mobility and ability to perform her activities of daily living. This loss in Anne’s muscle function greatly increases her chance of falls and she also has an increased risk for disability.

Reported Edmonton Frail Scale (REFS). The REFS derived from the Edmonton Frail Scale which defined frailty using the accumulation deficit model. The REFS evaluated ten domains for screening cognition function, general health status, functional independence, social support, medication uses, nutrition, mood, incontinence, self-reported performance. A total REFS score is 18, the scores of 12–18 is severe frailty, score 10–11 is moderate frailty, scores 8–9 is mild frailty, scores 6–7 is apparently frail and scores 0–5 is non-frail (Hilmer et al.,

at the time of your visit. We have divided the DGA in two parts, each with three