The frequency of common hidden disease in the elderly

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: With the rapid increase in the number of the aged population, curable or controlled disease were treated as aging process because of the difficulty of early detection and treatment of disease and the specificity of elderly patients. We help manage elderly patients by studying their frequency of common known disease and hidden disease that would enable the curable diseases to be detected early, and noncurable disease to be controlled. METHODS: The subjects included 128 patients over 60 years old who had completed structured questionnaires and we reviewed chart records among 208 patients registered from January 1997 to July at the Health Screening Center of a general hospital in Kyonggi-do. Known diseases were based on charts recorded through structured questionnaires and hidden diseases were based on health screening results and overall geriatric assessment data. RESULTS: The number of patients was 128 in which male was 47 and female was 81. The ratio between male and female was 1 1.72 and the average age was 66.0 years. In the order of frequency the most common known diseases were hypertension, arthritis, G-I disturbance, diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, depression and the hidden diseases they were arthritis, G-1 disease, depressive mood, malnutrition, hypertension, osteoporosis, hearing loss, hypercholesterolemia, hypomagnesemia, incontinence, anemia, decreased cognitive function. CONCLUSION: We assessed the characteristics of multiple pathology in geriatric patients and realized that it was important t manage aggressively those with a hidden disease that can be treatable after early detection through overall geriatric assessement.