RESUMEN
The world's population is aging and the number of people who are >/= 60 years old increased worldwide. The elderly population is susceptible to various benign and malignant diseases. Gastrointestinal diseases are among the common health problems that affect the elderly
Aim of the study: to identify the pattern of gastrointestinal diseases among elderly patients in Arar city [KSA] and the relation with gender in the study population
Subjects and methods: a cross sectional study was conducted in five randomly selected primary healthcare centers in Arar city [KSA], from September 2016 to March 2017. It included 118 elderly patients. A questionnaire was designed for data collection about socio-demographic variables, smoking, BMI, chronic diseases and types of gastrointestinal diseases among participants
Results: findings showed that all participants suffered from dental problems and 24.6% had gum problems. Other diseases affected various proportions of the studied elderly population including loss of appetite, gastric regurgitation, chronic constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic colitis, peptic and duodenal ulceration, liver cirrhosis, viral hepatitis, cholecystitis, gall stones, pills, anal fissure and GIT tumors. Statistically significant differences were found between males and females regarding having piles, gall stones and anorexia. On contrary, all other GIT diseases showed insignificant differences between males and females
Conclusion: different types of GIT diseases were found among the participants with varying rates. Significant gender differences were observed in some diseases [piles, gall stones and loss of appetite] while most of the studied GIT diseases showed insignificant differences between both sexes