Interdisciplinary geriatric consultation teams are implemented in the acute hospital setting in several high-income countries to provide comprehensive geriatric assessment for the increasing numbers of older patients with a geriatric profile hospitalized on non-geriatric units.
The geriatric profile of these 229 frail older stroke patients (median age 85 years, female 52%, nursing home 27%) was similar to that of the overall study group.
Patients aged 75 years or older and verbally testable who were admitted to one of the participating acute geriatric units or with a geriatric profile according to a geriatric consultation team were included.
Nearly half (48%) of these high risk patients in secondary stroke prevention presented with anticoagulation underuse, despite no significant difference in their geriatric profile, stroke risk or bleeding risk.
Secondly, we wanted to better characterize these non-anticoagulated patients regarding their cardiovascular and geriatric profile and their CHADS2 and HEMORR2HAGES scores in order to search for modifiable characteristics associated with anticoagulation underuse.
Older patients hospitalised through the ED are characterized by a higher dependency for (instrumental) ADL, malnutrition, cognitive deficits and a high comorbidity index, indicating a geriatric profile and confirming the hypothesis that the decision whether or not to admit a patient is not solely medical based.
Another risk factor was geriatric risk profile by G8.
Independent fall predictors were fatigue, living alone, ADL dependency, geriatric risk profile by G8 and fall history in the past 12 months.
Fatigue, living alone, ADL dependency, geriatric risk profile by G8 and fall history (in the past 12 months) were independent predictors of a fall.
This regression analysis showed that falling (≥1 fall), within 2 to 3 months after cancer treatment decision can be predicted by fall history in the past 12 months, fatigue, ADL dependency, geriatric risk profile by G8 and living situation.
