Supporting Elderly Patients at Risk in Hospital Environments

Consistently low birth rates and higher life expectancy lead towards an older population structure in Western countries. In Europe, the proportion of people 65 years and older increased from 16.6% in 2005 to 18.9% in 2015, with Germany, Italy and Greece having the highest share of people 65 years and olderin the total population.

The median age of the total population also increased by about 4 years from 2005 to 2015 so that the proportion of older people will increase strongly in the future. Especially the proportion of very old people 80 years and older is rising due to better living standards, lifestyles and education, as well as rapid progress in healthcare and medicine so that it is expected to more than double from 5.3% in 2015 to 10.9% in 2050. Consequently, hospitals are confronted with an increasing number of older patients, which have been shown to exhibit an increased risk of adverse outcomes during and after the hospital stay compared to younger patients. An important factor contributing to this increased risk of adverse outcomes is that many old patients suffer from multi morbidity, defined as the coexistence of 2 or more chronic disease conditions. To know more>>>>>>>>