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

Abstract

Objective: To determine awareness of "geriatrics"among elderly patients and reveal which expression is preferred, "older adults's health and diseasesdiseases"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±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.