Dtsch Arztebl Int
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The percentage of patients in intensive care who are 80 years old or older is continually increasing. Such patients already made up more than 20% of all patients in intensive care in Germany in the years 2007-2011. Meanwhile, effective treatments that support the organs of the body and keep severely ill patients alive are also being continually developed and refined. Frailty is a key prognostic parameter. The scientifically based assessment of frailty can be highly useful in intensive care medicine with regard to consented decision-making, individualized prognostication, treatment planning, and aftercare. ⋯ None of the available scores enable perfect prognostication. In Germany, frailty in intensive-care patients is currently best assessed on a simple visual scale (CFS).
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Habitually shortened nighttime sleep is a common phenomenon in childhood and adolescence, sometimes associated with chronic sleep reduction (CSR). CSR is associated with impairments of performance ability and emotional well-being. The extent to which children and adolescents in Germany suffer from CSR is unclear; it is also unclear what factors are predictive of CSR. ⋯ One in eight persons aged 12 to 17 in Germany, particularly girls, meets the criteria for CSR. CSR is associated with sleep disturbances and significantly impaired mental health and should, therefore, always be kept in mind in routine clinical practice. We provide a set of indicators for possible CSR that patients can easily be asked about.