The Severity of Acute Illness and Functional Trajectories in Hospitalized Older Medical Patients.

Background: Acute diseases and hospitalization are associated with functional deterioration in older persons. Although most of the functional decline occurs before hospitalization in response to the acute diseases, the role played by comorbidity in the functional trajectories around hospitalization is unclear.

Methods: Observational prospective study of 696 elderly individuals hospitalized in two Italian general medicine wards.