Geriatric Medicine concepts: Trajectory of illness, Life course approach and comprehensive Geriatric assessment

ABSTRACT

@#Globally, there is an increase in older people. Clinicians, particularly primary care physicians, will need to equip themselves with knowledge and have a general approach for management of older people. In this paper, the following geriatric principles and concepts are covered the trajectory of illness and the life course approach, multifactorial diagnoses and attributable risk, and comprehensive geriatric assessment. The illness trajectory concept enables clinicians to recognize where the patient is at, predict their likely prognosis and offer appropriate treatment decisions, balanced between aggressive curative intent and symptomatic management. The life course approach provides a model for planning intervention, which usually needs cooperation with other specialties. It is a worthwhile reminder for clinicians that older people tend to present with atypical symptoms, with multiple contributing factors towards their illness. Comprehensive geriatric assessment enables the clinician to gather sufficient information to complete clinical decision making for older people.