Diseases In The Elderly

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the two important issues relating to disease in elderly: the age-related changes and the pathophysiology of the diseases. The book contains 19 chapters that are arranged by organ system and structured to cover the specific areas for a quick but in-depth understanding of diseases in aging patients. Unlike any other book on the market, this text is concise and yet thorough in approach to the stipulated areas. This book includes multiple-choice questions that reinforce the concepts that are most vital to understanding and treating geriatric patients, making it an outstanding resource on its own or as a companion to larger geriatric texts. Diseases in the Elderly is the ultimate resource for geriatricians, medical students, primary care physicians, hospital doctors, geriatric nurses, and all other medical professionals treating and diagnosing diseases in elderly patients.

As the first of the nation's 78 million baby boomers begin reaching age 65 in 2011, they will face a health care workforce that is too small and woefully unprepared to meet their specific health needs. Retooling for an Aging America calls for bold initiatives starting immediately to train all health care providers in the basics of geriatric care and to prepare family members and other informal caregivers, who currently receive little or no training in how to tend to their aging loved ones. The book also recommends that Medicare, Medicaid, and other health plans pay higher rates to boost recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and care aides. Educators and health professional groups can use Retooling for an Aging America to institute or increase formal education and training in geriatrics. Consumer groups can use the book to advocate for improving the care for older adults. Health care professional and occupational groups can use it to improve the quality of health care jobs.

Whether increasing life expectancy leads to better health remains still controversial. Three topics are explored: (1) vanguard groups which inform about possible levels of health if the general social and environmental conditions were to approach those of the vanguard group; (2) the social and behavioral determinants of health differentiated into proximal and distal factors; (3) vulnerable groups such as migrants and the health differences between migrant groups. Newly available population-based data as well as new study designs and advanced statistical modelling form the basis for the empirical analyses.

Ageing has become a great problem for many countries. Due to world-wide life prolongation the number of people over 6o years old has grown rapidly into a ten percent piece of the world population. The growing age of the world population raises many social, economical, and medical problems. The proportion of people in the economically active age groups to those who are over 65 is constantly decreasing. A major consequence of the increasing numbers of individuals in advanced age groups is increasing numbers of patients suffering from age-related diseases. The aim of this book is to present the basic data on human ageing as well as on age-related diseases.

The incidence of multiple chronic diseases affecting a single individual is common among elderly patients. This incidence is believed to be associated with a decline in many health outcomes, including quality of life, mobility, functional ability, increased frequency of hospitalizations, psychological distress, mortality and the use of health care resources. Health in elderly patients can fluctuate significantly, thus prompting the need for proper integration of comprehensive geriatric care. An increasing amount of data gained from research programs is making it clear that a geriatric assessment identifies many problems in older people with chronic diseases, adds prognostic information, and might improve the outcomes of these patients. This volume reviews research on the value of geriatric programs in different subspecialties of internal medicine. Chapters of this book cover different chronic diseases (coronary artery disease, kidney disease, diabetes, osteoporosis etc.) separately and present new findings in these areas. Readers – both medical students and researchers – will find the book an essential for understanding requirements and nuances of specialized geriatric programs in the healthcare sector.

In this new color handbook, the authors deal systematically with those skin conditions that are particular to or more common in the elderly covering testing, diagnosis and treatment options. Given ageing populations the need for such a book is urgent. More and more elderly patients will seek care for a variety of skin conditions, ranging from eczem

Social isolation and loneliness are serious yet underappreciated public health risks that affect a significant portion of the older adult population. Approximately one-quarter of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, and a significant proportion of adults in the United States report feeling lonely. People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual's circumstances and perceptions. A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults summarizes the evidence base and explores how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. This report makes recommendations specifically for clinical settings of health care to identify those who suffer the resultant negative health impacts of social isolation and loneliness and target interventions to improve their social conditions. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults considers clinical tools and methodologies, better education and training for the health care workforce, and dissemination and implementation that will be important for translating research into practice, especially as the evidence base for effective interventions continues to flourish.