MULTIMORBIDITY IN OLD-AGE - SIGNIFICANCE FOR DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

The ever increasing number of old people as a consequence of an increa se in the life expectancy and better medication courses a various numb er 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 imp ortance of multimorbidity a survey of records covering 1000 hospitaliz ed patients aged fifty or more, was conducted at ten-year intervals. I n addition to case history, admission conditions, diagnosis and treatm ent, we were in particular interested in risk factors associated with different diagnosis. The results stress the importance of multimorbidi ty for diagnosis and therapy and suggest that adequate treatment is co mplicated by a variety of pathological conditions of old patients. We conclude that the actual organization of hospitals, especially the int ernal medicine units, is not suited, for a variety of reasons, for tre atment of geriatric patients. We recommend that geriatric patients sho uld be derived to specialized geriatric units already by admission or after discharge from acute treatment units.