ABSTRACT

Objective:

Nowadays diagnosis and treatment of diseases of geriatric population are becoming increasingly important. Especially, dermatological diseases are frequent and affect life quality of elders. Epidemiological investigations for this population will be important for more effective medical care, according to the changing needing.

Methods:

Seven-hundred twenty geriatric outpatients admitted to the dermatology clinic, between the June 2012-June 2013, conducted to our study. Data of patients, which were collected from patient registry records on hospital computer automation system, were analyzed retrospectively.

Results:

A total of 820 dermatological diseases in geriatric patients were analyzed in 13 groups. The five most frequently encountered diseases were eczematous dermatitis 32.9%, senile pruritus 14.6%, superficial fungal infections 14.5%, urticarial diseases 7.4%, and benign and malign skin tumors 5%, respectively.

Conclusion:

As a result, we suggest, successful diagnosis and treatment of frequent dermatological diseases of elderly are important for health and life quality of patients. However, dermatological examinations, focusing only on complaints of patients, may contribute delayed diagnosis of superficial fungal diseases and some premalignant skin diseases.