What is Geriatrics? Geriatrics or Older Adults Health and Diseases?

Objective: To determine awareness of "geriatrics" among elderly patients and reveal which expression is preferred, "older adults's health and diseases" or "geriatrics" as a term. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted with 479 patients, admitted to a unive...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European Journal of Geriatrics and Gerontology 2019-08, Vol.1 (2), p.51-55
Main Authors: Turkbeyler, Ibrahim Halil, Ozturk, Zeynel Abidin, Gol, Mehmet, Abiyev, Azer, Kaya, Bunyamin, Atakur, Selman, Oz, Mehmet
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Aged patients
Chronic illnesses
Diabetes
Geriatrics
Hypertension
Low income groups
Medical research
Medicine
Medicine, Experimental
Older people
Patients
Questionnaires
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Summary:Objective: To determine awareness of "geriatrics" among elderly patients and reveal which expression is preferred, "older adults's health and diseases" or "geriatrics" as a term. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted with 479 patients, admitted to a university hospital. Each participant was asked to respond to 11 questions. Results: The mean age of the participants was 39.30[+ or -]15.30 years, 40.7% of them were men. Twenty-eight percent stated that they knew what the geriatrics was. Only 13.2% of them satisfactorily defined it. Nine-point-six percent of them stated that they were thinking geriatrics was an illness, 2.3% -a brand name of a drug, 0.6% - a TV cliff-hanger, 0.6% -a car brand, 0.4% -a city, 0.4% -a country name, 0.4% -one of the organs in the body and 0.4% -a film star. After explaining the "geriatrics" to the patients who did not know or could not know the correct meaning, 75.4% of all patients declared that the 'older adult's health and diseases' was more favorable to describe geriatric medicine. Conclusion: The patients had a low awareness level about geriatrics. Most of the patients preferred to use the term "older adult's health and diseases" instead of, "geriatrics". If we used "older adult's health and diseases' more frequently in conjunction with "geriatrics" over the course of public disclosure efforts, we could get a better public awareness of geriatrics. Keywords: Geriatrics, older adult, health, diseases
ISSN:2687-2625
2687-2625
DOI:10.4274/ejgg.galenos.2019.92