A new study shows a hospital stay can have a negative impact on an elderly patient. Researchers from Chicago say cognitive problems increase after an elderly person is hospitalized.
The effects of hospital stays
Data collected for 15 years in Chicago as part of an aging project shows memory and thinking skills dropped after older patients dealt with a hospital stay.
“Essentially, it’s as if people became 10 years older, from a cognitive standpoint, than they actually were before a hospitalization,” Dr. Wilson lead author of the report and a professor of neurological and behavioral sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago said. “Especially vulnerable to this effect were patients with more serious illnesses who stayed in the hospital for longer periods of time, and patients who started experiencing worsening memory and thinking problems before they were admitted.”
The cause
Researchers aren’t sure what’s causing the mental decline. “Is this cognitive insult caused by the illness that brought the patient to the hospital, or by what we do in the hospital?” 
Dr. Boustani, associate professor of medicine at Indiana University asked. “It appears to be both.”
“What this new research does is add another layer and show that there’s also this cognitive loss that’s occurring,” he said. “While we suspected this before, there wasn’t strong enough data to firmly establish it before this study.”
Advice for children of elderly parents
In many cases, children are providing care for elderly parents. Doctors involved with this study advise children to be aware of these potential problems.
“Know that when your elderly parent is coming out of the hospital, this has the potential to be a very vulnerable period,” Dr. Covinsky said. “Whatever need your parent had prior to the hospitalization, there’s a good chance they may change and that more support will be required.”
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