The care of the adults after they have reached sixty-five years of age, also called geriatric care, takes different dimensions and becomes more and more specific to age as people grow older. For instance, if you have had a fall, without corrective measures, the chance that you will fall again in the next six months is between fifty and seventy percent.
Your nutrition and your requirements approach a deficiency state far more rapidly than when you are in your forties and fifties.
The likeliest infections to affect the elderly are chest and urinary tract and strategies to prevent them are far more important than treating an infection once it has already set in.
As you get older your immune system gradually begins to weaken and as a consequence the impact of minor infections or major ones recover at a slower pace. Immune evaluation and prevention of infections is a special subject in the care of the elderly.
Geriatric care is largely based on risk assessment of the individual and ensuring that age related changes are recognised before they become clinical events and ensuring that events do not occur recurrently.