MULTIMORBIDITY IN OLD-AGE - SIGNIFICANCE FOR DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

The ever increasing number of old people as a consequence of an increase in the life expectancy and better medication courses a various number of different problems. Within this context, the multimorbidity and medication strategy are gaining in importance. Neither ''no therapy'' concept nor polypragmasy are recommended. In trying to clarify the importance of multimorbidity a survey of records covering 1000 hospitalized patients aged fifty or more, was conducted at ten-year intervals. In addition to case history, admission conditions, diagnosis and treatment, we were in particular interested in risk factors associated with different diagnosis. The results stress the importance of multimorbidity for diagnosis and therapy and suggest that adequate treatment is complicated by a variety of pathological conditions of old patients. We conclude that the actual organization of hospitals, especially the internal medicine units, is not suited, for a variety of reasons, for treatment of geriatric patients. We recommend that geriatric patients should be derived to specialized geriatric units already by admission or after discharge from acute treatment units.