COMPREHENSIVE GERIATRIC ASSESSMENT

PSYSICAL EXAMINATION.

FUNCTIONAL EXAMINATION.

COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT.

SOCIAL AND AFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT

Comprehensive geriatric assessment in geriatric patients is the key tool that evaluates the physical, mental, social and functional area.

In this assessment we collect the most important health problems in the elderly and we review the medications they take daily.

We will perform health promotion and prevention activities.

We will value the functional area, which is the process that is aimed to collect information about the ability of the elderly to maintain their independence and practice their habitual activity.

In this area one of the scales that we will use is the Katz index that appreciates the daily living activities.

It is a qualitative scale consists of 6 items.

1. bath
2. Dressing / undressing
3. the toilet use
4. mobility
5. continence
6. food

A study was made in which they wanted to know the functional capacity of elderly patients by Katz index and know the reliability of this index in the primary care setting.

It was performed in Oviedo, it was a descriptive cross-sectional study with patients older than 65 years, health center users from Otero. There, the elderly population is 12, 86% of the population that goes to the center.

The key findings related to the Katz index say that it is a method for assessing the functional capacity of the elderly reliably in the primary care environment and it can be used by any professional in the team.

As noted disadvantage of this index it is not sensitive to minor changes.

Moreover we will assess the clinical area. Within this area we will make the anamnesis, which include:

• A personal history.
• Review of equipment and systems to the needs of Virginia Henderson.
• Complete drug history.
• Nutritional history.

In this last section we can include nutritional evaluation by Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA).

This test is valued with a maximum of 30 points: <17 points indicates poor nutritional status, 17 to 23.5 risk of malnutrition and if the score is higher than 24 means a good health.