RT Book, Section
A1 Kane, Robert L.
A1 Ouslander, Joseph G.
A1 Abrass, Itamar B.
A1 Resnick, Barbara
SR Print(0)
ID 57730313
T1 Chapter 2. The Geriatric Patient: Demography, Epidemiology, and Health Services Utilization
T2 Essentials of Clinical Geriatrics, 7e
YR 2013
FD 2013
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-179218-9
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=57730313
RD 2024/04/19
AB From  the  physician's  perspective,  the  demographic  curve  strongly  argues  that  medical  practice  in  the  future  will  include  a  growing  number  of  older  adults.  Today  persons  age  65  years  and  older  currently  represent  a  little  more  than  one-third  of  the  patients  seen  by  a  primary  care  physician;  in  40  years,  we  can  safely  predict  that  at  least  every  other  adult  patient  will  age  65  or  older.  The  “old-old”  (older  than  85),  however,  are  the  most  rapidly  growing  group  of  older  individuals,  with  a  growth  rate  twice  that  of  those  age  65  years  and  older  and  four  times  that  of  the  total  population.  This  group  now  represents  approximately  10%  of  the  older  population  and  is  anticipated  to  grow  from  5.7  million  in  2010  to  over  19  million  by  2050  (Day,  1993).  Among  this  old-old  group  those  age  90  and  above  will  show  the  steepest  population  rise  (Federal  Interagency  Forum  on  Aging-Related  Statistics,  2010).  People  in  this  old-old  group  tend  to  have  poorer  physical  activity,  be  more  dependent  in  activities  of  daily  living,  and  have  more  cognitive  impairment  (Zhao  et  al.,  2010).