Hospitalisation leads to functional decline in the over 70s, study finds

Two in five patients aged over 70 who are hospitalised with acute conditions are discharged with reduced functioning compared with when they were admitted, a study has found.

Staying in bed, being attached to urinary catheters unnecessarily, taking sleeping pills, and inadequate nutrition are some of the reasons for a decline in function, the researchers wrote in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.1

“We wanted to examine why people who come into the hospital on their feet sometimes leave in a wheelchair,” said Anna Zisberg and Efrat Shadmi and colleagues, of the University of Haifa in Israel. “A patient who is …