Evaluación geriátrica multidimensional del anciano en cuidados paliativos

Abstract

Advances seen in health care, and the demographic and epidemiological changes occurring worldwide, have led to a gradual aging of the planet’s population with the logical social and economic implications in the fields of education and health systems, and on social security. As a result of the above, it will be much more frequent to find old people going to consultation for disabling chronic pathologies in already advanced stages. Due to the complexity of this type of patients, the implementation of an intervention strategy is required, in order to allow the evaluation of those medical, psychological, social, functional and contextual aspects leading to proper diagnosis, treatment and follow-up over the integral time of these individuals. The above is achieved by comprehensive (“multidimensional”) geriatric assessment performed through interdisciplinary teamwork.