[Validation of a screening tool toward a geriatric comprehensive assessment during a non geriatric consultation: the geriatric warning test]

Geriatr Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil. 2011 Dec;9(4):429-35. doi: 10.1684/pnv.2011.0309.
[Article in French]

Abstract

Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is a validated method but is time consuming and must be performed by several professional. It is useful to elaborate a screening tool, which allows the elderly to CGA. The aim of this study is to validate the Geriatric Warning Test (GWT), a 6-questions form: 1) Did your patient consult or did hospitalize for a fall in the last 3 months? 2) Did your patient lose weight or did he loose the appetite? 3) Has your patient difficulties to see or listen? 4) Does your patient need help in the everyday life? 5) Has your patient a change of the cognitive functions? 6) Does your patient need a geriatric evaluation for one or several any reason that those cited previously? During a prospective observational study, a doctor non-geriatrician practitioner informed the GWT during a consultation of vascular medicine. All the patients aged 70 or more years old had an EGS after the consultation. An EGS was considered as necessary if 2 propositions and essential if 3 propositions were present from a 10 propositions list. The relevance of the TAG was analysed when one then 2 questions were informed during the consultation. The CGA was judged as necessary with a positive predictive value (PPV) of 81,8% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 87,5%, when a single question is sufficient to indicate the CGA, and respectively of 76,5 and 53,9% when 2 questions of the GWT are taken into account. For an essential CGA (3 propositions), the PPV and NPV are 40,9 and 100%, by taking a single question of the GWT and 47,1 and 92,3% with 2 questions. A single positive question of the GWT must be used to propose an EGS during a non geriatric consultation.

Publication types

  • Observational Study
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Cardiology
  • Female
  • France
  • Geriatric Assessment / methods*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mass Screening / methods*
  • Primary Health Care*
  • Prospective Studies
  • Surveys and Questionnaires*