What Causes Post-hospital Syndrome in Seniors

Seniors – who are quite typically frailer and more set in their daily routines – tend to be more susceptible to post-hospital syndrome. While more research is both needed and is being done, we do know that these two factors definitely make a senior somewhat more prone to developing health complications that land them back in the hospital.

It is well known that during the normal course of hospital care, an individual is exposed to a variety of factors that typically have a negative impact on their health. Think about the last time you were in the hospital for an overnight stay. You faced poor sleep/sleep deprivation, constant disruptions of your normal schedule by medical staff and/or visitors, poor eating habits, deconditioning (declines in physical ability due to confinement to your bed), and possibly medications that messed with your mental/physical functioning.

The feeling of post-hospitalization malaise is not unlike the ‘discombobulated’ feeling that many otherwise healthy people feel during the Daylight Savings Time transition or the experience of jet-lag after a long flight. In reality, all of these stressors can have an impact on pretty much every system in the body; immune, neurological, digestive, etc. Research shows that when people’s routines get disrupted… even just slightly… they can become disoriented slightly and they just aren’t themselves. This, in turn, increases their likelihood or risk for developing a complication.