[The spreading of big geriatric centers in the community dwelling elderly: the challenge for the primary health care].

As the giants of geriatrics are considered: immobility, instability, incontinence, intellectual impairment, depression, visual and auditory impairment. They have multiple causation, chronic course, no simple cure and make the elderly person dependent on others for care. The paper presents the results of the study on the prevalence of the giants of geriatrics in community dwelling elderly people 75 yers old +. The study design: cross-sectional questionnaire study, survey. Population studied lived in two chosen areas (the urban and the rural one) with the high percentages of the demographic senility. The interviewers were doctors and nurses serving the studied areas. 463 randomly selected elderly people (233 from the rural and 230 from the urban area) took part in the study. The serious locomotive disability (III/IV group according to J. Piotrowski) was observed in 17.1% of the probands (20.4% in the urban and 13.7% in the rural area; the worse locomotive ability was observed in women and in the older age groups.). Falls were reported by 45.1% of the group (more frequently by women and in the rural area--58.3% vs. 31.9% in the city). Visual impairment reported 21.1% of probands in the urban area and above 50% in rural one and auditory impairment respectively 30.8% and 53.9% of them (in both cases positive correlation with the age was noticed). Incontinence of urine was found in 31.7% of cases in the city and in 46% of them in the rural area (more frequently in women) and incontinence of faeces in 6% (without urban/rural differences). The pathologic result of the Geriatric Depression Scale was observed in 49.2% of the elderly (more frequently in women) and of the Cognitive Impairment Test by Katzman in 20.5% (more frequently in women and in the older age groups). Only 18.4% of the studied group of the elderly maintained the community nurse visited their home during the last 12 months (27.8% in the city and 9% in the rural area) and more frequently--34.3%--general practitioner (respectively 48.7% and 20.2%). The marginal percentage of the elderly (and only in the city) received any kind of physical rehabilitation or contacted the social worker. In the presence of high rate of disability in the elderly population the most important need is the development of community care for the elderly with the great emphasis on the role of community/home nurses and rehabilitation institutions for the elderly on the primary care level.