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Approach to the Older Adult Patient

  • Chapter
Fundamentals of Geriatric Medicine
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Abstract

Upon completion of the chapter, the student will be able to:

  1. 1.

    Identify the different components of the history and physical examination and how these differ in older adults compared to younger adults.

  2. 2.

    Identify and understand the potential challenges in caring for older adults and ways to overcome them.

  3. 3.

    Enumerate the changes that occur with normal aging and contrast them with changes that occur secondary to disease.

Material in this chapter is based on the following chapters in Cassel CK, Leipzig RM, Cohen HJ, Larson EB, Meier DE, eds. Geriatric Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach, 4th ed. New York: Springer, 2003: Taffet GE, Physiology of Aging, pp. 27–35. Tangarorang GL, Kerins GJ, Besdine RW. Clinical Approach to the Older Patient: An Overview, pp. 149–162. Koretz B, Reuben DB. Instruments to Assess Functional Status, pp. 185–194. Reuben DB. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment and Systems Approaches to Geriatric Care, pp. 195–204. Selections edited by Rainier P. Soriano.

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Suggested Readings

  • Koretz B, Reuben DB. Instruments to assess functional status. In: Cassel CK, Leipzig RM, Cohen HJ, et al., eds. Geriatric Medicine, 4th ed. New York: Springer, 2003:185–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reuben DB. Comprehensive geriatric assessment and systems approaches to geriatric care. In: Cassel CK, Leipzig RM, Cohen HJ, et al., eds. Geriatric Medicine, 4th ed. New York: Springer, 2003:195–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taffet GE. Physiology of aging. In: Cassel CK, Leipzig RM, Cohen HJ, et al., eds. Geriatric Medicine, 4th ed. New York: Springer, 2003:27–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tangarorang GL, Kerins GJ, Besdine RW. Clinical approach to the older patient: an overview. In: Cassel CK, Leipzig RM, Cohen HJ, et al., eds. Geriatric Medicine, 4th ed. New York: Springer, 2003:149–162.

    Google Scholar 

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Soriano, R.P. (2007). Approach to the Older Adult Patient. In: Soriano, R.P., Fernandez, H.M., Cassel, C.K., Leipzig, R.M. (eds) Fundamentals of Geriatric Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-32326-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-32326-8_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-32324-4

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