Demographics features of patients older than 65 years presenting to emergency department

ABSTRACTDEMOGRAPHICS FEATURES OF PATIENTS OLDER THAN 65 YEARS PRESENTING TO EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTAdmission to the emergency department by the elderly is increasing proportionally with the increase in the elderly population in Türkiye. The presence of multiple diseases causes a complicated clinical situation. Evaluation of elderly patients in the emergency department may be difficult. Approaching the emergency problems of the elderly population with specially educated personnel will result in the prevision of a faster and more qualified health service. From these reasons, knowing the elderly patient profile presenting to emergency department becomes important. Our study, we aimed to evaluate the demographics of elderly patients who were admitted to the emergency department.Complaints, diagnosis, history of illnesses, medications, length of hospital stay, wards of admission, and mortality rates of patients older than 65 years, presenting to Fırat University Emergency Department from June 2011 to November 2011 were recorded prospectively from patient records.On average, 13.8% of the total number of patients who applied to the emergency department represented the geriatric population over the age of 65. Mean of age was 74.8±7.2. The results indicated that 37.2% hypertension, 21.9% coronary artery disease and 18% diabetes mellitus. Top three disease was found as follows: strokes (%5.3), congestive heart failure (%4.8), vertigo (%4.2). The gender distribution of the elderly was 49.2% women and 50.8 men. 38.3% of all admission to the geriatric patients were hospitalized. The most common department of hospitalization was cardiology.High rates of geriatric patients applying to emergency department show the necessity for emergency staff to be informed and trained about geriatrics. We think that, more research needs to be done on this subject.Keywords: Geriatric patient, emergency department, comorbidity, polipharmacy.