Prevalence of geriatric conditions: A hospital-wide survey of 455 geriatric inpatients in a tertiary medical center Cheryl Chia-Hui Chen a, *, Chung-Jen Yen b , Yu-Tzu Dai a , Charlotte Wang a , Guan-Hua Huang c a Department of Nursing, National Taiwan University, 1 Jen-Ai Rd., Section 1, Taipei 100, Taiwan, ROC b College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, 1 Jen-Ai Rd., Section 1, Taipei 100, Taiwan, ROC c Institute of Statistics, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta Hsueh Road, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, ROC 1. Introduction Older patients aged 65 and older are at increased risk of suffering adverse outcomes of hospitalization. Indeed, the prevalence of geriatric conditions for hospitalized patients has been reported between 7% and 78% (Nair et al., 2000; Covinsky et al., 2003; Flood et al., 2006, 2007; Anpalahan and Gibson, 2008). This wide range in figures is due to differences in the conditions studied, methods employed, and indicators used for defining geriatric conditions. Geriatric conditions such as incontinence, falls, malnutrition, depression, pressure ulcers, functional dependence, cognitive impairment, delirium, insomnia, and polypharmacy are not part of the traditional disease model of medicine and may be overlooked in the care of geriatric inpatients (Cigolle et al., 2007). The geriatric conditions commonly seen in the hospital have been called geriatric syndromes (Reuben et al., 1996). This term has been embraced by geriatricians to capture the clinical conditions in geriatric patients that are a necessary focus in managing patients (Inouye et al., 2007). The presence of these geriatric syndromes or conditions has been reported to strongly predict adverse outcomes of hospitalization, including prolonged length of hospital stay, nursing home placement, and even death (Anpalahan and Gibson, 2008). However, no definition of geriatric syndrome or condition is generally accepted, leading to variation in what is considered a geriatric syndrome or geriatric condition (Flacker, 2003). For instance, most health care researchers and providers agree that incontinence, pressure ulcers, cognitive impairment, and falls are geriatric syndromes, but there is less agreement that depression, polypharmacy, and dehydration also qualify (Cigolle et al., 2007). In this study, we used the term ‘‘geriatric conditions’’ to indicate a collection of signs and symptoms common in older inpatients, but not necessarily fitting into discrete disease categories. We included all geriatric condi- tions for which our survey data were available. The majority of reported prevalence data has been drawn from samples of geriatric inpatients at special geriatric units or at best, from selected medical units (Covinsky et al., 2003; Flood et al., 2006, 2007). However, the prevalence of geriatric conditions for geriatric patients admitted to surgical services has been less clear. With the number of older adults increasing dramatically and advances in surgical technology, those requiring surgery will proportionally increase in number. Furthermore, data on the prevalence of these common geriatric conditions, both at surgical and medical units are not available in the Taiwanese context. For clinicians and hospital administrators, knowing prevalence data is important for resource allocation and quality improvement. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics 53 (2011) 46–50 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 26 February 2010 Received in revised form 31 May 2010 Accepted 1 June 2010 Available online 16 July 2010 Keywords: Geriatric syndromes Geriatric conditions Geriatric surgery Acute care for the elderly A B S T R A C T The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of common geriatric conditions in a tertiary medical center. We conducted a cross-sectional, hospital-wide survey of 455 inpatients, aged 65 and older, from 24 medical and surgical units of a 2200-bed urban academic medical center in Taiwan. Patients were screened in face-to-face interviews for 15 geriatric conditions. The prevalence of geriatric conditions was determined and compared by medical versus surgical services. Our sample of participants had a mean age of 75.3  6.1 years (S.D.), range = 65–92. The prevalence of geriatric conditions ranged from 5% (pressure ulcers) to 57% (polypharmacy; taking > 5 prescriptions). The majority was visually impaired (74%) and complained of sleep disturbance during their hospital stay (58%). Prevalence rates of certain geriatric conditions differed significantly between medical and surgical units, suggesting that care should address not only common conditions but also those with higher rates on different units. Furthermore, high rates of geriatric conditions indicate strong needs for care that does not fit into traditional disease models of medicine. Care should be better targeted to address different risks for geriatric conditions of medical versus surgical geriatric inpatients in acute care settings. ß 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 2312 3456/88438; fax: +886 2 2321 9916. E-mail address: cherylchen@ntu.edu.tw (C.-H. Chen). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics jo ur n al ho mep ag e: www .elsevier .c om /lo cate/ar c hg er 0167-4943/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.archger.2010.06.003