Health monitoring prevents many senior health disasters. Unfortunately, many older adults who age in place fail to receive basic health monitoring. Doctor visits happen here and there, but the daily and weekly health observations that notice a health disaster before it spirals out of control fail to occur when seniors live alone or have families that live far away. Therefore, knowing the health monitoring shortcomings helps to understand why certain health problems occur faster than others.
What Are Vital Signs and Who Monitors Them Daily
Blood pressure and blood sugar are not fixed, they change, based on medication, diet, activity, and stress. For many seniors diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes, they receive monitors and explicit recommendations to check these numbers daily, if not more often. Unfortunately, many of these people fail to remember to use the monitors or fail to use them consistently to report patterns.
The problem is that it’s much harder to catch a trend if a person only checks their pressure here and there. Blood pressure is not suddenly high one day, it gradually creeps higher and higher over several weeks, begging for an adjustment in medication. But someone who only checks a few times along the way fails to keep a log and relay this information. By the time they develop a headache and recognize something feels off, significant progress has already been made on a downward trend.
Medication Effects and Side Effects
Additionally, medications have side effects and recommendations that require health monitoring. New medications or updated dosages require feedback. Is the blood pressure medication taking effect? Is the pain medicine causing constipation? Is the person even supposed to be taking these two pills at the same time?
Seniors fail to recognize their side effects or misunderstand their outcomes. Older adults may feel dizzy because “that’s what happens when you get older,” when in reality, it may be caused from the recently prescribed blood pressure medicine. They may feel exhausted from a chronic illness when it may be the side effects of another medication.
A Home Care Agency in Allentown PA provides trained feedback and observation to understand these levels and connections which do not exist when they operate independently. Without this kind of mediation, the problems go unnoticed while the person feels worse.
Thus, feedback becomes a positive loop which provides health feedback for proper adjustments. When no one is consistently watching, however, the doctor assumes no side effects when it’s really just the patient suffering without explanation.
Weight Fluctuations as Signs of Health Problems
Substantial and slow weight loss is a cause for concern for elderly persons. Whether it’s reduced appetite, limitations in preparing meals, or something more sinister, weight loss occurs over time. However, when the only time someone weighs themselves is at the doctor, the need for action becomes a lot more urgent than it would otherwise.
Rapid weight gain poses even greater cause for concern. Whether through blood clotting at in the extremities or fluid retention due to heart failure or kidney problems, seniors continue to exist with their 5-,10-, or 20-pound gain until it becomes obvious. When the doctor is made aware, early intervention prevents something from becoming too physical.
Weighing oneself consistently helps to provide objective feedback that subjective determination fails to recognize. A person sees themselves every day but they don’t notice this gradual shift. Numbers offer limitations that suggest trends and demand action.
Risks Relative to Movement Changes
Falls happen fast, but the risk of falling increases over time. Balance fails to suddenly decline—it’s been an issue for a while; strength has failed to remain satisfactory—it dwindles over time; gait fails to improve—this adjustment occurs slowly. Yet when a falls occurs, it’s too late. The elderly person has had poor balance for some time.
Regular observation of how a person moves, how steady they are, and whether or not they’re comfortable performing movement exercises suggest that their balance increasingly gets worse. Someone who is grabbing onto furniture more often or someone who is moving more slowly needs at least a start toward improving their future or maintaining their safety before a fall occurs.
The elderly person remains uninjured if, ahead of the game, someone recognizes these warning signs and implements strength exercises, balance work, or an accommodation in their environment.
Cognitive Signs that People are Not Aware Of
Cognitive abilities fail over time as well. Sometimes someone forgets something once in a while—part of life—but sometimes patterns emerge that create confusion (declining ability to process or follow through with commands) and judgment becomes impaired. A family member who sees someone only once a month might miss cognitive dissonance that could use a series of observations.
Medication management provides great indicators. Can the patient accurately and independently organize their pills? Do they remember to take them all? Can they follow multi-step instructions? These practical pieces reveal cognitive abilities more accurately than a casual response over coffee.
Problems that are noted prematurely remain recognized as deterioration happens the longer someone attempts to reign in their cognitive abilities. Home Health provides consistent awareness as an extra set of eyes on the matter which allows for the process to be non-judgmental but instead, encouraging for exploration.
Nutrition and Hydration Needs
Poor nutrition reports reveal elderly persons who live on their own. They skip meals, they forget to buy groceries, they reach the end of their rope when cooking feels too complex. This newfound malnourishment presents itself slowly but ultimately impacts recovery efforts and overall health.
Dehydration is even worse when seniors live by themselves. Thirst does not begin until a person reaches a certain age—people don’t feel thirsty. They aren’t reminded of how much water is essential. Without consistent suggestion or advocacy for drinking water, chronic dehydration becomes the norm with mental confusion and falls persisting as worries.
It’s not until later when significant weight loss or extreme dehydration complications occur that a person’s eating and drinking woes become a problem no longer easily fixed. It’s much harder to jump through hoops once the problems become serious.
Skin Condition and Injury Monitoring
Skin changes indicate other health problems that need acknowledged quickly. A new bruise begs the question whether someone is on blood thinner and fell. A wound that isn’t healing over time should be questioned about diabetes and circulation concerns. Scrapes or pressure areas need attention before infection becomes an issue.
Senior citizens cannot easily see their backs, sides, or bottoms. Problems emerge out of sight and out of mind until they’ve become severe. Regular skin checks catch problems when they’re small and frequently easily treated.
This is critical for diabetic sufferers as well who may not feel their feet hurt as neuropathy prevails. The accidents that are bad enough for a younger adult to feel right away happen silently to seniors until infections have already set in with no other problems found until extremely serious levels emerge.
Emotional and Mental Health-Related Symptoms
Mental health symptoms much be monitored just as much as physical health condition symptoms when maintaining health proper monitoring. Without regular touch points, mental health concerns go overlooked and untreated but can be made just as bad by social isolation.
It’s a health risk from health monitoring perspective when someone fails to engage with people and stay active per their interests and desires; such news is just as important as symptom-based physical responses to evaluations.
Health Monitoring Vulnerabilities
Health monitoring vulnerability occurs when seniors fail to have basic oversight that goes beyond minor complex medical evaluations—it’s consistent attention to detail that changes once a day or a week into a problem that could have easily been avoided had someone checked in on basic monitoring efforts regularly sooner. It’s much harder to get a person stabilized in a hospital with an emergency once it’s gone out of control versus caught early enough where the recommendation would only provide necessary feedback or reassurance. The vulnerabilities suggest that health monitoring can prevent crises from ever occurring in the first place.