GI
Dysphagia raises the risk for this serious respiratory complication, making nursing assessment and intervention essential.
What is aspiration pneumonia?
With aging, the bladder becomes less elastic, and the detrusor muscle weakens, which reduces this ability.
What is bladder capacity and effective emptying?
Age-related changes in the kidneys reduce this important function, which is the rate at which blood is filtered.
What is the glomerular filtration rate (GFR)?
The classic symptom of renal calculi, often radiating toward the groin, and usually accompanied by nausea or hematuria.
What is severe flank pain?
Risk factors for this disease include low-fiber diets, obesity, chronic constipation, and even hiatal hernia.
What is diverticular disease?
To rule out serious causes of bowel elimination problems—such as obstruction, malignancy, or structural changes—this type of diagnostic assessment may be performed.
What is an anal, rectal, or sigmoid examination?
These common medications for allergies can relax the bladder and increase the risk of incontinence in older adults.
What are antihistamines?
Residual urine in the bladder after voiding predisposes older adults to this common infection.
What are urinary tract infections (UTIs)?
Older adults often use extra condiments like salt and sugar due to diminished gustatory sensitivity, which increases risk for these two conditions.
What are hypertension and diabetes?
This common class of medications increases urination and can cause urgency, frequency, and polyuria, putting older adults at risk for incontinence.
What are diuretics?
These medications, especially when used together, increase the risk of dysphagia.
What are anticholinergic drugs (polypharmacy)?
Urinary control may fail if the time between feeling the urge to void and the actual need to void becomes too short. What is this time period called?
What is the interval between urge perception and bladder emptying?
With age, body composition shifts toward increased fat and decreased lean tissue, especially abdominal fat, raising the risk for this chronic disease.
What is diabetes or cardiovascular disease?
Patients with kidney stones are instructed to do this so the stone can be collected for laboratory analysis.
What is strain their urine?
Risk factors for kidney stone formation include dehydration, recurrent UTIs, gout, family history, and diets high in these three things.
What are oxalates, protein, and salt?
For an older adult, early symptoms like anorexia and epigastric pain may be subtle. What is the impact of this on diagnosis?
What is delayed recognition and later-stage detection of stomach cancer?
Early signs of bladder cancer often resemble a urinary tract infection, including frequency, urgency, and dysuria. But the hallmark symptom is this.
What is painless hematuria?
Because the kidneys are less responsive to ADH with aging, older adults are more prone to these two fluid and electrolyte imbalances.
What are hyponatremia and dehydration?
A wellness outcome for constipation risk is achieved when an older adult reports passing stools that are this consistency, without straining or discomfort.
What are soft stools?
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) increases nutritional risk by decreasing appetite while also increasing this bodily demand.
What is energy expenditure?
In older adults, this condition can be made worse by medications like NSAIDs, steroids, blood thinners, SSRIs, and bisphosphonates, and may lead to serious complications such as bleeding or perforation.
What is peptic ulcer disease?
In older adults, the bladder typically signals fullness at this approximate volume, compared to 450 mL in younger adults.
What is 350 mL?
Age-related changes in this organ include reduced elasticity and weaker peristalsis, contributing to sensations of food “sticking.”
What is the esophagus?
The Mini-Nutrional Assessment classifies older adults into these three categories.
What are malnourished, at risk for malnutrition, or normally nourished?
Deficiency of this vitamin, common in older adults taking proton pump inhibitors or following vegetarian diets, can cause pernicious anemia, weakness, and cognitive changes.
What is vitamin B12?