New research from the University of Michigan may show a way to help older people recover their independence after suffering a serious injury.
It’s estimated that 40% of trauma patients will be 65 and older during the next four decades.
Getting geriatric patients back on their feet and independent is especially difficult.
U of M researchers interviewed older patients a year after being seriously injured in an accident.
The researchers found the patients that recovered more of their ability to do simple tasks like bathe themselves, go on shopping trips alone or do light housework by themselves, were more likely to have received additional geriatric care at the hospital.
Among other things, geriatricians help patients manage and change medications that might impede their recovery.
The U of M study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery.
