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Geriatric Syndromes & Assessment
Geriatric Syndrome (definition) - answer✔A symptom, or a complex of symptoms, resulting
from multiple diseases and risk factors
Geriatric Syndrome (causes) - answer✔- Multiple medications, reactions
- Multiple diseases
- Environmental conditions
- Age-related changes
Geriatric Syndromes (the "giants") - answer✔- Pressure ulcers
- Cognitive changes/confusion
- Gait instability
- Falls
- Urinary incontinence
- Sleep disturbances
- Pain
- Malnutrition
"SPICES" Framework (Fulmer) for assessing for Geriatric Syndromes - answer✔S - Sleep
disorders/disturbance
P - Problems eating or feeding
I - Incontinence
C - Confusion
E - Evidence of falls
S - Skin breakdown
*S*PICES - Sleep Disturbance - answer✔Problem: decreased sleep efficiency
Contributing factors:
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- co-morbidities & sleep disorders
- medications
- environment & lifestyle
Implications: prolonged illness
Assessment tools:
- sleep diary
- Epworth Sleepiness Scale
- Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
Sleep efficiency (definition) - answer✔- A ratio of the amount of time spent sleeping compared
to the amount of time spent in bed (time sleeping / time in bed)
- Sleep efficiency decreases with age
- In older adults, sleep efficiency drops below 0.8 to as low as 0.4 and people spend less time in
later stages of sleep
Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) - answer✔- A self-rated questionnaire that assesses sleep
quality and disturbances over 1-month
- Seven "component" scores generated:
(1) subjective sleep quality
(2) sleep latency
(3) sleep duration
(4) habitual sleep efficiency
(5) sleep disturbances
(6) use of sleeping medication, and
(7) daytime dysfunction
- Sum the seven components yields one global score
Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) - answer✔- A scale intended to measure *daytime sleepiness*,
by administration of short questionnaire
- Subjects rate their probability of falling asleep on a scale of increasing probability from 0 to 3
for eight different situations
Geriatric Syndromes & Assessment
Geriatric Syndrome (definition) - answer✔A symptom, or a complex of symptoms, resulting
from multiple diseases and risk factors
Geriatric Syndrome (causes) - answer✔- Multiple medications, reactions
- Multiple diseases
- Environmental conditions
- Age-related changes
Geriatric Syndromes (the "giants") - answer✔- Pressure ulcers
- Cognitive changes/confusion
- Gait instability
- Falls
- Urinary incontinence
- Sleep disturbances
- Pain
- Malnutrition
"SPICES" Framework (Fulmer) for assessing for Geriatric Syndromes - answer✔S - Sleep
disorders/disturbance
P - Problems eating or feeding
I - Incontinence
C - Confusion
E - Evidence of falls
S - Skin breakdown
*S*PICES - Sleep Disturbance - answer✔Problem: decreased sleep efficiency
Contributing factors:
, ©THEBRIGHTSTARS 2024
- co-morbidities & sleep disorders
- medications
- environment & lifestyle
Implications: prolonged illness
Assessment tools:
- sleep diary
- Epworth Sleepiness Scale
- Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
Sleep efficiency (definition) - answer✔- A ratio of the amount of time spent sleeping compared
to the amount of time spent in bed (time sleeping / time in bed)
- Sleep efficiency decreases with age
- In older adults, sleep efficiency drops below 0.8 to as low as 0.4 and people spend less time in
later stages of sleep
Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) - answer✔- A self-rated questionnaire that assesses sleep
quality and disturbances over 1-month
- Seven "component" scores generated:
(1) subjective sleep quality
(2) sleep latency
(3) sleep duration
(4) habitual sleep efficiency
(5) sleep disturbances
(6) use of sleeping medication, and
(7) daytime dysfunction
- Sum the seven components yields one global score
Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) - answer✔- A scale intended to measure *daytime sleepiness*,
by administration of short questionnaire
- Subjects rate their probability of falling asleep on a scale of increasing probability from 0 to 3
for eight different situations
