Beyond atypicality: reframing the clinical presentation of acute illness in older people.
Geriatricians are aware that the clinical presentation of older people is often with 'atypical' symptoms of commonly encountered conditions. In this Commentary, we explore the emergence of this description as geriatric medicine developed during the era that the disease-diagnosis paradigm dominated m...
| Publicado en: | Age & Ageing Vol. 55; no. 7; pp. 1 - 6 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Jul2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195867378&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195867378 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00020729 AGA jtl: Age & Ageing issn: 00020729 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 55 iid: 7 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 195867378 10.1093/ageing/afag225 ppf: 1 ppct: 5 formats: tig: atl: Beyond atypicality: reframing the clinical presentation of acute illness in older people. aug: au: Ninan, Sean Howick, Katherine Martin, Finbarr C affil: Older People's Medicine, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds LS15 8ZB, UK Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, Harrogate, UK King's College London Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine–Population Health Sciences, Addison House, Guy's Campus Great Maze Road, London SE1 9RT, UKGuy's and St Thomas' Hospitals NHS Trust - Ageing and Health, Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7EH, UK su: Health services accessibility Occupational roles Medical quality control Medical care Geriatrics Age Old age Acute diseases Frail elderly Comorbidity Symptoms sug: subj: Health services accessibility Occupational roles Medical quality control Medical care Geriatrics Age Old age Acute diseases Frail elderly Comorbidity Symptoms keyword: aged atypicality clinical presentation copyrightHolder:British Geriatrics Society copyrightYear:2026 diagnosis diagnosis-disease paradigm geriatric giants geroscience https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afag225 inLanguage:en multimorbidity older people publisher:Oxford University Press reframing sameAs:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42525830/ aged atypicality clinical presentation copyrightHolder:British Geriatrics Society copyrightYear:2026 diagnosis diagnosis-disease paradigm geriatric giants geroscience https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afag225 inLanguage:en multimorbidity older people publisher:Oxford University Press reframing sameAs:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42525830/ ab: Geriatricians are aware that the clinical presentation of older people is often with 'atypical' symptoms of commonly encountered conditions. In this Commentary, we explore the emergence of this description as geriatric medicine developed during the era that the disease-diagnosis paradigm dominated medical discourse. We suggest that this recognition of atypicality may have increased the sensibility of non-experts to the more subtle clinical complexity of unwell older adults and added legitimacy to the role of specialist geriatrics, and therefore contributed to improvements in the access and quality of care of older people. Then, noting the growing understanding of the multidimensional nature of illness causation, with age-related frailty now widely appreciated, and insights emerging from geroscience, we offer a critique of its conceptual limitations. Finally, we suggest that holding to the notion of atypicality might be an obstacle to a more assertive reorientation to equitable and age-attuned healthcare, and that the time may be right to offer atypicality a well-deserved retirement. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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