Some Characteristics of Geriatric Patients

Abstract

A group of 255 patients accepted for a geriatric unit in Glasgow was compared with a random sample of old people in the community matched with the patients for age, sex and economic status; and with a group of old people admitted to a general medical unit. The social factors which increased the probability of becoming a geriatric patient were: advanced old age; being a widower, bachelor or spinster; having no children; and living alone. The medical factors were the presence of two or more of the following symptoms: stroke, falls, gait loss, incontinence, and mental abnormality. These symptoms were associated with insufficient community care, heavy burden on relatives, high mortality and low discharge rate from hospital. Geriatric patients are drawn predominantly, although not exclusively, from a ‘hard core’ of socially disadvantaged old people with multiple diseases; they present with symptoms which deprive them of the ability for self-care and frequently they are in the terminal stage of their lives.