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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| The effects of physical health upon the outcome of admission to an acute psychogeriatrics ward | | Author(s) | B Draper, G Luscombe |
| Journal title | Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol 18, no 3, August 1999 |
| Pages | pp 134-139 |
| Keywords | Psychogeriatric units ; Admission ; Health [elderly] ; Ill health ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Acute psychiatric admissions in older age are often found to have significant comorbid physical illnesses that impact upon assessment and management. This study aimed to prospectively quantify the physical health of admissions to an acute psychogeriatric unit (PGU) using the Physical Health Schema (PHS), and to determine whether measures of physical health predict psychiatric outcome at discharge and increased mortality at one year. There were 88 admissions categorised into four main psychiatric diagnostic groups: major depression, dementia, delirium, and other diagnoses. On the PHS, neurological disorders were the most severe and disabling conditions, with gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal disorders the main acute conditions. Ratings of global outcome as recovered/improved were associated with significantly fewer organ systems affected by physical illness than unchanged/worse outcomes. The study concluded that acute PGUs are best co-located near geriatric medical wards due to high rates of physical illness. (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-991005223 A |
| Classmark | LDM: QKH: CC: CH: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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