BMJ  2007;335:361-362 (25 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.39311.447407.3A

Letters

Prevention in elderly people

Later life's complexity needs a scalpel rather than an axe

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The key features of ageing are increased inter-individual variability, complexity, and comorbidity, which is why indicators of quality of care based on single disease models work less well among older than younger people. However, it is a far cry from this position to the nihilism of Mangin et al.¹

Individualised health promotion for older people is highly effective² and is likely to be among the reasons for falling disability among older Americans,³ to the point of stabilising healthcare expenditure on older people. Health promotion among older people embraces a far wider repertoire of manoeuvres than the prescription of statins, and sadly, evidence is abundant that old age is associated with a failure of doctors to provide health promotion to older people in a range of settings.^{4 5}

Rather than systematically withholding preventive options for older people, clinicians should capitalise on other hallmarks of later life, wisdom and common sense, to develop . . . [Full text of this article]

Centre for Ageing, Neurosciences and the Humanities, Adelaide and Meath Hospital Dublin, Dublin 24, Republic of Ireland

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Related Article

Preventive health care in elderly people needs rethinking

Dee Mangin, Kieran Sweeney, and Iona Heath
BMJ 2007 335: 285-287. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]