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Título: Seniors in the emergency department : age and gender differences in presenting characteristics and predictors of adverse functional outcome at six months
Autores: Verdon, Josée.
Fecha: 2000
Publicador: McGill University - MCGILL
Fuente:
Tipo: Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Tema: Gerontology.
Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery.
Descripción: With the rapid aging of the population, the presence of seniors in the emergency department (ED) is increasing. While the functional outcomes of seniors following an ED visit has been described, their predictors have not been examined by gender and age. This prospective multi-centre study of a cohort of 1659 seniors living in the community described the characteristics of men and women, age 65 to 79 and age 80 and over, presenting to the ED, and defined predictors of adverse functional outcome (functional decline, institutionalisation or death) 6 months after their visit.
There were more gender differences in the presenting characteristics and predictors in seniors age 65 to 79, than in those aged 80 and over. Two factors predicted adverse functional outcome in all seniors: admission to hospital at the ED visit and baseline level of disability. For seniors age 80 and over, these were the main predictors. For seniors age 65 to 79, predictors differed by gender. Among men, death was more frequent and predictors included measures of comorbidity. Among women, functional decline was more frequent and predictors included living alone, visual and cognitive impairment.
These results underline the importance of age and gender when describing functional outcomes of seniors. Knowledge of these predictors should allow emergency department staff to identify seniors at risk and develop appropriate interventions that may help prevent such poor outcome.
Idioma: en