Part of the book: Pain in Perspective
Part of the book: Diabetes Mellitus
Pain is a common symptom in the elderly and it is problematic and distressful especially if the polder person is dependent on a caregiver. Pain keeps the sufferer uncomfortable and can affect the person from carrying out daily activities and tasks especially activities of daily living. Pain in the older person may be acute or chronic. Some of the causes of pain in the elderly are neuralgia, musculoskeletal dysfunction especially osteoarthritis, emotional and mental problems, cancer and several other causes. The assessment of pain in the elderly is done using validated pain assessment tools such as the visual analogue scale, verbal rating scales, numeric rating scales, McGill pain assessment questionnaire, pain attitudes, brief pain inventory, and geriatric pain measure. Management of pain in older persons involves non-pharmacological and pharmacological methods. There are some barriers and challenges of pain management in the elderly and also consequences when pain is not properly managed or not managed at all in an older person.
Part of the book: Update in Geriatrics
Medical ethics is very important at this time of medicine due to the covid-19 pandemic which has caused a lot of mortality and morbidity world wide. Medical is important in guiding clinicians and other healthcare workers not to cause harm while caring out their duties. There are various aspects of medical ethics such as negligence, do not cause harm, beneficent and others. Not practicing medical ethics has caused some physicians to face litigation by their patients and clients and also face medical disciplinary boards. Some have even been suspended from medical practice for a number of months or years or even have their names struck off from the register of the licensing board of their country.
Part of the book: Bioethics in Medicine and Society
Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that involves the use of lifestyle in the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases like diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Recent studies have shown that diabetes mellitus can be prevented following lifestyle modifications. Lifestyle medicine is a branch of medicine that promotes lifestyle modifications as a way of life. This includes promoting healthy eating which includes a whole plant-based diet, low fat, low sugar and low salt. It also includes exercises, sleeping healthy and reducing stress. This is involved in the management of diabetes mellitus. Diabetic management is expensive especially in low and middle-income countries where health insurance is not available for the entire populace and diabetics have to pay out of pocket for their medications.
Part of the book: Type 2 Diabetes
The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the world, and the world is trying to adapt to the new world. Healthcare workers had to undergo stress in order to combat the pandemic. Doctors worked hard even with the several restrictions on movement, such as curfews and lockdowns. Doctors still had to go to work. The work of doctors is stressful, and this is made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has led to a poor well-being of doctors. Doctors are now exposed to several mental health disorders such as depression, burnout, insomnia and poor physical, psychological, psychosocial, and mental well-being. Well-being of doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic is a study that deals with the well-being of health workers in general, and doctors in particular, and is important and original in the field. Hospital managers and employers should develop strategies to reduce burnout in doctors and improve their well-being. This includes provision of counseling services and vacation for doctors.
Part of the book: Health Promotion
There are an increasing number of people that are aging. This is also common in Africa. Therefore, they need specialist care from various categories of health care workers and other professionals on geriatric medicine and gerontology. There are few geriatricians in Africans. This is because there are few training centres in the continents. Also, most of the geriatricians are trained on the other side of the continent overseas.
Part of the book: Geriatric Medicine and Healthy Aging