It's no secret that the population in the Maritimes is getting older and that's leading to increasing concerns about care for the elderly in our health system.
A new study conducted by a Halifax doctor promises a simple way to predict serious, even fatal, health changes in the elderly.
Dr. Kenneth Rockwood says he found that when mobility and balance get worse in those over 65, it can predict a higher risk of death.
More than 26,000 seniors were admitted to hospital in Halifax last year. Most go through a barrage of tests and scans but Rockwood says one crucial test continues to be overlooked.
"When an older person is very ill,” says Rockwood, “and they come into the hospital it's really important to pay attention to how well they move because that may be telling us the most important information there is about what their overall prognosis is."
The study which followed 409 seniors admitted to hospital, found that about 70 percent of patients whose mobility and balanced got worse in the first 48 hours after admission, were 17 times more likely to die within 30 days.
A finding that's crucial, he says, for two reasons.
"..A) it beats all the current technology that we have, and B) it helps get at what is an important clinical problem"
The idea of testing mobility and balance is getting support from advocates.
"This kind of testing should be done in the patient's doctor office,” says Bill VanGorder, with the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, “if they live in long term care facilities it should be done there, it is a true indicator of the general health and state of the patient."
The province's health minister wouldn't say whether the government would review this research but says the province's fall prevention strategy is already looking at different studies into senior health care.
"When seniors have complex health care problems they require a health care system that can respond in a different way than perhaps our health care system did in the past," says Nova Scotia’s Health Minister Maureen MacDonald.
Dr. Rockwood says his study is now being conducted in Buffalo and China.
With files from Mayya Assouad.
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