Intended for healthcare professionals

Making A Difference Multiple Health Problems in Elderly People

Never had it so good?

BMJ 2008; 336 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39532.671319.94 (Published 24 April 2008) Cite this as: BMJ 2008;336:950
  1. Iona Heath, general practitioner
  1. 1Caversham Group Practice, Kentish Town, London NW5 2UP
  1. iona.heath{at}dsl.pipex.com

With ever increasing pressure on doctors’ time, Iona Heath wonders whether primary care really meets the needs of elderly people at all, while John Wasson (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39532.671597.94) suggests ways for doctors to improve the care of older patients that don’t require extra resources or staffing

What does it mean to be old? What is the relationship between ageing and illness? How does the subjective experience of multiple and compounding illnesses relate to the medical model and the taxonomy of disease? These questions become more pressing as an ever greater proportion of the population survives into extreme old age, and as the postwar baby boomers—those who “never had it so good,” as Harold Macmillan put it—begin to draw their pensions.

Globally the proportion of people aged ≥60 years is growing very fast. It is expected that by 2025 a total of about 1.2 billion people will be in this age group. By 2050 this number will have risen to two billion, 80% of them in developing countries. The older population itself is also ageing. Currently 69 million people are aged over 80, and although this age …

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