The medical care of older patients.
Proper medical care for growing numbers of older people depends upon application of advances in medicine to the special problems of ageing. Despite gaps in understanding of the ageing process, high-quality care can be achieved through routine use of knowledge already available.Older people differ structurally, functionally and psychologically. Health influences every aspect of their lives. Their reactions to stress and disease are altered. In practice, the doctor must assess the biological changes of ageing and their possible influences on symptoms and signs. Modifications in the application of ordinary methods of medicine and surgery are determined by functional impairments and structural defects. While the medical problems of the aged are special, the approach must be general; the practitioner needs experience with disease in all age groups and should be alert to the adverse effects on old people of the universal misunderstandings of ageing and its problems.
D000368:Aged; D005853:Geriatrics; D006801:Humans