A study of clinical profile of acute medical illnesses in geriatric patients

Abstract

Background: Population aging is transforming the world. Elderly people are the most rapidly growing population group worldwide, which eventually include India also. The objective of the study was to provide the health care needs of this growing numbers of the vulnerable heterogeneous population, reliable data are still lacking and with recognition of the need the present study was designed. Materials and methods: A prospective observational study which was conducted at the department of medicine, Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad for the duration of 2 years, in which total 100 patients who was ≥65 years of age with acute emergency illness were included and data were collected. Results: Patients had common symptoms like breathlessness (45%) and giddiness (39%) and commonly encountered clinical conditions were cerebrovascular stroke (31%) and acute LVF (19%). Hypertension was the most common disease associated with CV stroke, acute LVF and IHD. Hypertension (44) and hypertension and diabetes (40) together were the commonly encountered co-morbidities. Most patients with co-morbidities were found complaint to their medicines. Among study participants, 87% of diabetics had also hypertension as compared to 81.5% nondiabetics who were suffering from hypertension. Conclusion: Most common acute medical illness in geriatric population is due to the chronic co-morbid conditions. It is crucial to maintain chronic morbidity in a timely manner to minimize the complication. Post-acute care may be aimed to promote the functional recovery of older adults, prevent unnecessary hospital readmission, and avoid premature admission to a long-term care facility.