Читать книгу Pathy's Principles and Practice of Geriatric Medicine - Группа авторов - Страница 244

Preventive geriatrics is not an oxymoron. It is, however, a challenging area of medicine for many reasons. (i) How can guidelines for prevention take into account the variability seen among older people? (ii) How can preventive geriatrics balance the dichotomy between the treatment of populations and the treatment of the individual? (iii) How can clinicians handle the unclear areas or ‘grey zones’ of preventive geriatrics? (iv) Does early detection or case‐finding equate with better outcomes?

To deal with these questions, this chapter presents a model of preventive geriatrics called the Health Maintenance Clinical Glidepath, which is primarily for office‐based practices. It addresses screening for geriatric specific areas (e.g. cognition, gait, and balance) and screening for common medical illnesses and diseases (e.g. certain cancers, heart disease).