A study on comprehensive geriatric assessment in tertiary care teaching hospital

Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) is defined as a treatment process that identifies a frail aged person's medical, psychosocial, and functional limitations to develop a coordinated plan to maximize overall health with aging.

To estimate the Prevalence of undiagnosed medical problems by Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA).

A Prospective Observational Study was planned to be conducted for a period of six months in Navodaya Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Raichur, with a sample size of 120. Data were collected from the case sheets using a specially designed data entry form, the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment chart.

Among 120 cases, most were male (60.0%), and most (55.8%) were in the age group of 65- 70. Most of them were married (83.3%) and some of them (20.8%) were taking alcohol, some (31.7%) were using tobacco. Overall, 120 Geriatric patients underwent CGA screening. There was a high frequency of problems going undiagnosed ranging from 65.06% to 90.47% in all IPDs. Problems like Dependency (90.47%), functionality impairment (89.39%), urinary incontinence (88.88%), hearing loss (76.04%), malnutrition (74.62%), depression (72.32%) high frequency going undiagnosed. The frequency of Insomnia severity going undiagnosed was low (65.06%).

Our study showed a high frequency of undiagnosed medical problems. This study showed considerable adequacy for CGA. This reaffirmed the need for CGA in tertiary care setup.