The population of the elderly continues growing today. This growth makes hospitals and medical centers focus on different aspects of health promotion among the aging people because of the prevalence of chronic diseases (Song et al., 2013). There are many chronic diseases, including diabetes, strokes, arthritis, and obesity, that may influence the quality of human life and even cause death in about 45% of the population. The goal to manage a disease may be not enough for the elderly. Additional approaches and new options have to be available. It is possible that patient education may be a good contribution to the health status of aging patients with chronic diseases.
Definition
It is suggested to provide an elderly patient who has a chronic disease with education in order to improve their health status in a certain time frame. An elderly patient is a person who is aged more than 65 years (Yap, Thirumoorthy, & Kwan, 2016). A chronic disease is a condition that persists for a long period of time and cannot be prevented or avoided due to timely vaccination and properly organized treatment plans.
Epidemiology
Education and treatment are obligatory for patients with chronic diseases due to the spread of this health problem among the people from different parts of the globe. For example, Song et al. (2013) state that chronic diseases cause about 63% of death globally. In the United States, more than 100 million people have at least one chronic disease. Patients with chronic diseases are signed to special medication regimes with the help of which it is possible to manage their quality of life (Chan et al., 2013). Still, people should also know that education may be a solid part of their treatment.
Clinical Presentation
There are many chronic diseases that older people may have, and it is hard to give some common clinical presentation of all of them in several words. However, such common symptoms as pain, discomfort, and long-lasting concerns should not be avoided because they may indicate some dangerous chronic disease. Anxiety and the inability to control the events or health conditions may be another serious sign that has to be investigated and checked by blood tests and other diagnostic tools.
Complications
As a rule, much time is required to identify and treat chronic diseases. Therefore, patients may be exposed to such complications of chronic illnesses as functional limitations, a decreased quality of life, and depression or other mental disorders. In addition, one poorly treated chronic disease may lead to another disease and require new treatment and more costs.
Diagnosis
Not all people are aware that sometimes a chronic condition may be recognized during a thorough physical examination. Even if a person does not experience certain problems or discomfort, there is a chance of having some complications. Therefore, regular consultation with doctors, blood and urine tests, and ultrasound scanning can be helpful diagnostic tools for the elderly.
Conclusion and PICOT
In general, chronic diseases among the elderly turn out to be an ordinary thing that has to be investigated and explained from different perspectives. People may live with their chronic diseases without even knowing about it. As a result, as soon as some complications occur, it may be too late to offer treatment. Therefore, elderly patients have to be educated about the possibilities and diagnostic tools for chronic diseases in order to have a chance and improve their health status. The following PICOT question may be used to develop research on this topic:
(P) In elderly patients with chronic diseases, (I) does patient education intervention, (C) compared with only medication treatments, (O) increase their health knowledge and improve their health status (T) in a period of 6 months?
References
Chan, F.W.K., Wong, F.Y.Y., So, W.Y., Kung, K., & Wong, C.K.M. (2013). How much do elders with chronic conditions know about their medications? BMC Geriatrics, 13(1), 59-65.
Song, Y., Ma, W., Yi, X., Wang, S., Sun, X., Tian, J., … Marley, G. (2013). Chronic diseases knowledge and related factors among the elderly in Jinan, China. Plos One, 8(6), 1-9. Web.
Yap, A. F., Thirumoorthy, T., & Kwan, Y. H. (2016). Medication adherence in the elderly. Journal of Clinical Gerontology and Geriatrics, 7(2), 64-67. Web.