| Abstract |
Background: Most commonly encountered conditions in the elderly are falls, frailty, functional limitation, cognitive disturbances and depressed mood. Thus, the objective of this study was to study the association of the aforementioned geriatric syndromes with functional dependence in the elderly patients (≥ 60 years) presenting to the geriatric-medical OPD in a tertiary care hospital.
Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional descriptive study. 100 patients at or above 60 years of age who presented to the Geriatric-medical OPD in Srimati Sucheta Kriplani Hospital were selected randomly for the study. Patients presenting with Acute confusional State or patients requiring emergency-management were excluded. Geriatric Assessment was performed. Katz Index of ADL was used to assess the functional status. Its association with Geriatric syndromes, such as Frailty, Impaired Cognition, Impaired Gait/Balance, Falls, Depression, Cataract and Hearing impairment were studied with the help of internationally validated tools. Results: 88% of the study population had fully preserved functional status, while 12% of the study population had functional dependence in Activities of Daily Living. The factors which were found to be significantly associated with functional dependence are advanced age (>75 years) (p=0.016), cataract (p=0.008), hearing impairment (p=0.005), falls (p <0.001), depression (p=0.003), and frailty (p=0.001). Conclusion: Geriatric Assessment on outpatient basis can help us to identify the geriatric problems and the population at risk of functional dependence which would enable us to make early interventions.
KEYWORDS: cognitive decline, depression, falls, frailty, functional dependence. |
