Abstract:
Introduction.
The population of the Republic of Moldova is about 36 mln.
The 65 years old and elder persons represent about 10% of the
whole population. During last 10 years the population number
is decreasing from 3.639 thousands, in 2000, to 3 562 thousands
in 2010. At the same time, the rate of the aged population of the
country is increasing - from 325 200 persons, in 2000, to 329 700
persons, in 2011.
The aging population was the subject of the study conducted
on the request of the National Commission for Population and
Development. The health of elderly people and the acces to medical services have been investigated in terms of health self-esteem,
existence of chronic diseases and disability, medication use, access
to health services and the existence of functional limitations caused
by health and need for assistance. According to the esteem of the personal health over the last
10 years, there have increased both, the number of people who
believe their state of health as being good and very good, as well
as the amount of those who find their state as a bad and very bad
one. The seniors’ opinion varies depending on their age and their
gender. The number of the persons who were registered as having
a disability has also increased. It is also observed an increasing
of the proportion of elderly people affected by chronic diseases.
The care for elderly people having complex problems requires
the collaboration between care-givers, and it strongly depends on
the responsible organization. In order to tailor the care in accordance to the individual need of elders, the assessment has to be
organized at a lower aggregation level (districts) where professionals know each other well and agreements can be adjusted to local
conditions. The urgent need of educating general practitioners about the “new geriatric approaches” is obvious, as patients 65
and older currently comprise 28% of the physician workload in
primary care.
The Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) differs from
a standard medical evaluation in three general ways: it focuses on
elderly individuals with complex problems, it emphasizes functional status and quality of life, and it frequently takes advantage of
an interdisciplinary team of providers. It can be effective only if
there is a process for identifying elderly patients who may benefit
from it. In the most of cases, they are elderly individuals who are
frail and disabled or who have multiple interacting comorbidities,
as opposed to relatively healthy older people whose health conditions are addressable by usual medical approaches, and those with
serious focal chronic conditions, for whose disease management
by primary care with input by other subspecialists is appropriate.
Material and methods
The educational needs assessment is going to be done, in order
to help primary care team with introduction of CGA, by using an
evaluation of the competence level of 50 family physicians and
nurses through case study methodology. At the same time the
number of medical records will be examined to determine the
lack of knowledge in the field of Geriatric Care.
Results
The proposed activities and collaboration, will allow the “Scientific Perspective”, which is a non-commercial organization of
researches on health care, from Sainkt-Petersburg, Russia (www.
crystalproject.ru), to share its experience on CGA with primary
care providers from our country. Our common goal is to disseminate more widely the good practice in Elderly Care and to act
for the benefit of aged persons in Moldova.
Description:
Nicolae Testemitanu State Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Congresul III al Medicilor de Familie din Republica Moldova, 17–18 mai, 2012, Chişinău, Republica Moldova, Conferinţa Naţională „Maladii bronhoobstructive la copii”, consacrată profesorului universitar, doctor habilitat Victor Gheţeul, 27 aprilie, Chişinău, Republica Moldova
