What is a illness trajectory?

What is a illness trajectory?

Illness trajectories describe the time-related decline of functional status across a spectrum of illnesses.

What is the trajectory of diabetes?

We define a diabetes trajectory as a sequence of comorbidities (i.e., HDL, HTN, and IFG) potentially leading up to diabetes. The ordering of these comorbidities is denoted by an arrow (→).

Which disease trajectory is the most common for patients with cancer?

Terminal illness This trajectory is most common among patients living with an illness that can be categorized as leading to terminal, such as cancer.

What is palliative trajectory?

This entails a reasonably predictable decline in physical health over a period of weeks, months, or, in some cases, years. This course may be punctuated by the positive or negative effects of palliative oncological treatment.

What factors influence a dying trajectory?

A natural death trajectory is typically a long, steady decline due to old age. In these cases, the death trajectory is based on how the mind and body degenerate, including the speed of organ failure. In these cases, it is much easier to anticipate a person’s death.

What are the different trajectories of dying?

As articulated by the Institute of Medicine, and augmented by researcher and palliative physician Joanne Lynn in the early 2000s, there are four commonly recognized trajectories: Sudden Death, Terminal Disease, Major Organ Failure, and Frailty (Lynn, 2004).

What does palliative care focus on?

Palliative care is specialized medical care that focuses on providing patients relief from pain and other symptoms of a serious illness, no matter the diagnosis or stage of disease. Palliative care teams aim to improve the quality of life for both patients and their families.

What is the best definition of a dying trajectory?

The concept of a dying trajectory was first suggested by Glaser and Strauss in 1965 and refers to the change in health status over time as a patient approaches death. 13. Glaser and Strauss identified different “patterns” of dying – sudden death, lingering, certain to die on time, and the vacillating pattern.

What are the stages of illness trajectory?

What is the most common symptom experienced by terminally ill patients?

Fatigue is the most common symptom at the end of life, but little is known about its pathophysiology and specific treatment.

What does it mean to have a health trajectory?

Taken together, a theoretically justified health trajectory that fits the data in a statistical sense provides information about health status at any specified time, including an endpoint of interest. A health trajectory describes the dynamic (changing) course of health and illness.

Are there any distinct illness trajectories in the medical literature?

Distinct illness trajectories have been recognized in the medical literature (see Figure 1). This Fast Fact will review the medical evidence of these trajectories as well as their utility as a patient teaching tool.

How is the Corbin and Strauss chronic illness trajectory model changing?

As the nature of the American health care system, chronic illness, and nursing change, theoretical models used to guide nursing management of chronic conditions must be updated to keep abreast of these changes, while still retaining their core concepts. This article offers a revised version of the C …

How are illness trajectories related to palliative care?

Thinking in terms of these trajectories provides a broad timeframe and patterns of probable needs and interactions with health and social services that can, conceptually at least, be mapped out towards death. Such frameworks may help clinicians plan and deliver appropriate care that integrates active and palliative management.