Comprehensive assessment of elderly patients

Comprehensive assessment of elderly patients is becoming of increasing importance with our changing demography. This paper discusses the major areas of functional impairment: immobility, falling, incontinence of urine and feces, and confusion. These problems may lead to physician contact because of the strain they impose on care providers, the increased dependency they create, or the social crisis they precipitate. It is important for the family physician to assess patients on the basis of the particular functions related to these problems. Multidisciplinary teams with special training are being developed to cope with the increasing need for assessment of the elderly. It is important that these assessments be made carefully, and that the full rehabilitation potential of each patient be realized. Only in this way can optimum use be made of limited resources and unnecessary suffering reduced.