26 Sep 2019

Balanced physical, mental and social wellbeing is critical for elderly people to lead a healthy lives .

It also requires that caregivers should be cognizant of the elderly’s special health needs.

Speaking in an interview Dr Kesegofetse Chabaesele, a Resident Family Medicine and Public Health Doctor at University of Botswana’s Faculty of Medicine advised care givers not to get impatient with elderly as there were common ailments that occur as a result of old age.

Among the common diseases affecting the elderly, Dr Chabaesele noted brain disorders such dementia, the common cause of which is Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Chabaesele explained that the elderly, tend to lose their cognitive function, change personality, are unable to think and reason properly, and have a poor memory which are the common symptoms. 

For the elderly, she stated that it may be difficult to treat causes of memory loss such as depression, chronic alcoholism, drugs side effects as well as nutritional deficiencies. 

She said in cases where dementia had already set in, families needed to help the individual by keeping them in a familiar environment as most patients with such conditions tend to get anxious in unfamiliar environments. 

She emphasized on the importance of use of memory aides, and that was important to tell the elderly same information repeatedly.

She added that one may also stick notes around the house for those who can read.

“Orientation to date, time, year, names of family members and people around the aged adult should be done repeatedly,” she said, adding that, such required a lot of patience. 

Dr Chabaesele stated that most elderly people were at risk of injuries, especially fractures, stressing the need to modify one’s environment to prevent falls and advised on placing some rubber devices in the bath tub or showers to make them less slippery.  

To those using walking sticks she advised that caretakers should ensure the appropriate height and gripping rubber on the bottom, saying mobility was very important. 

She mentioned depression as one of the diseases that affect the elderly and therefore critical to screen older adults for depression because was treatable. 

Dr Chabaesele further stated the elderly were prone to being forgetful, having decreased vision and hearing, poor absorption of nutrients, increased prostate size in men (leading to blockage of urine) as well as musculoskeletal changes (leading to friable bones which fracture easily).

Other ailments she mentioned were heart problems, stroke, lung disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which occurs mostly in men with chronic history of smoking and past work in dusty environments like mines), hypertension and arthritis. 

She stated that most of the elderly often have problems with their knees, high blood pressure, dizziness, incontinence of urine,  sugar diabetes, loss of senses  to mention a few, adding that as one ages, their health status would be influenced by own genetics, age, lifestyle choices saying smoking and excessive alcohol use have negative effects in the long run.

She further mentioned that the environment also has impact on ageing, appropriate housing (age friendly,) assistive technologies, access to transport and availability of resources.

Dr Chabaesele nevertheless stated that healthy ageing could be promoted by healthy life style choices from an early age.

She emphasised exercise, eat healthy balanced diet, saying one may need to take nutritional supplements. She emphasized that families need to prepare for retirement or dealing with incapacitated adults well in time.

She stated that it was important to acquire assistive devices such as glasses, hearing aids, walking sticks early, so that the elderly could maintain independence for as long as possible.

She reminded caregivers that most elderly people need supervision when taking their medications, to avoid taking wrong doses, stressing was it was important to ensure that all records of prescriptions were kept safely, and that refills and doctors’ appointments were not missed. Ends