Utility of the Care Dependency Scale in predicting care needs and health risks of elderly patients admitted to a geriatric unit: a cross-sectional study of 200 consecutive patients

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of the Polish version of the Care Dependency Scale (CDS) in predicting care needs and health risks of elderly patients admitted to a geriatric unit. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 200 geriatric patients aged >= 60 years, chronologically admitted to a geriatrics unit in Poland. The study was carried out using the Polish version of the CDS questionnaire to evaluate biopsychosocial needs and the level of care dependency. Results: The mean age of the participating geriatric patients was 81.8 +/- 6.6. The mean result of the sum of the CDS index for all the participants was 55.3 +/- 15.1. Detailed analysis of the results of evaluation of the respondents' functional condition showed statistically significant differences in the levels of care dependency. Evaluation of the patients' physical performance in terms of the ability to do basic activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL (I-ADL) showed statistically significant differences between the levels of care dependency. Patients with high dependency were more often prone to pressure ulcers -13.1 +/- 3.3, falls (87.2%), poorer emotional state -6.9 +/- 3.6, mental function -5.1 +/- 2.8, and more often problems with locomotion, vision, and hearing. The results showed that locomotive disability, depression, advanced age, and problem with vision and hearing are connected with increasing care dependency. Conclusion: CDS evaluation of each admitted geriatric patient enables us to predict the care needs and health risks that need to be reduced and the disease states to be improved. CDS evaluation should be accompanied by the use of other instruments and assessments to evaluate pressure ulcer risk, fall risk, and actions toward the improvement of subjective well-being, as well as correction of vision and hearing problems where possible and assistive devices for locomotion.