Dehydration in the Older Adult Upon Hospitalization
“It 's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn 't appeal to anyone” (Rooney, n.d.). As longer life spans and medical technology improves, the aging population in the United States will increase to about 20% of the population (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2013). With increased life expectancy, different diseases affect our aging adults. No longer is tuberculosis, syphilis, or enteritis the threats they once were. According to the CDC (2013), heart disease and cancer, along with other chronic diseases such as stroke, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease are negative health consequences. However, the decline and …show more content…
Furthermore, the literature supports how the adults with cognitive impairment have increased problems with dehydration than those without cognitive impairment. There is no information on how dehydration further affects cognitive impairment and frailty during their course of hospitalization. The purpose of an exploratory design to gain “insights and familiarity for later investigation or undertaken when problems are in a preliminary stage of investigation” (Lynn University, 2013, para. …show more content…
Due to the small sample, the lack of relationship between dehydration and cognitive impairment was not supported, which differs from larger studies. However, one significant finding indicated the cognitively intact, frail patients remained dehydrated compared to the fit patients. The admission testing identified those who were dehydrated and they remained dehydrated after the conclusion of the time frame. The over arching finding of this study suggests, “frailty may be a risk factor for dehydration in these patients and highlights the impor-tance of formally assessing older patients for dehydration at admis¬sion to the hospital and throughout their hospital stay” (McCrow et al., 2016, p.
“It 's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn 't appeal to anyone” (Rooney, n.d.). As longer life spans and medical technology improves, the aging population in the United States will increase to about 20% of the population (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2013). With increased life expectancy, different diseases affect our aging adults. No longer is tuberculosis, syphilis, or enteritis the threats they once were. According to the CDC (2013), heart disease and cancer, along with other chronic diseases such as stroke, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease are negative health consequences. However, the decline and …show more content…
Furthermore, the literature supports how the adults with cognitive impairment have increased problems with dehydration than those without cognitive impairment. There is no information on how dehydration further affects cognitive impairment and frailty during their course of hospitalization. The purpose of an exploratory design to gain “insights and familiarity for later investigation or undertaken when problems are in a preliminary stage of investigation” (Lynn University, 2013, para. …show more content…
Due to the small sample, the lack of relationship between dehydration and cognitive impairment was not supported, which differs from larger studies. However, one significant finding indicated the cognitively intact, frail patients remained dehydrated compared to the fit patients. The admission testing identified those who were dehydrated and they remained dehydrated after the conclusion of the time frame. The over arching finding of this study suggests, “frailty may be a risk factor for dehydration in these patients and highlights the impor-tance of formally assessing older patients for dehydration at admis¬sion to the hospital and throughout their hospital stay” (McCrow et al., 2016, p.