EPIDEMIOLOGY

Epidemiology



Timely Epidemiology

Introduction

The aging of the population in the world is well documented in developed countries and rapid progress in developing countries, an increase in absolute and relative numbers of people over 65. The study of the characteristics and health status of this population is of increasing importance, which has prompted various agencies to discuss the issue and develop plans and programs to provide timely, appropriate and economically feasible for the purposes of this aging. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) since 1994 adjusted age and older designated as the person 65 or older,  term that was adopted for the purposes of this study. 

Epidemiology has been continually evolving, so that in the second half of the twentieth century have been applied in epidemiologic methods with emphasis on the study of chronic disease morbidity, identification of their origin or possible causes, such as factors genetic and environmental, "but its more substantive progress has been filed in the interest of the problems of aging, which leads to link epidemiology and gerontology as a multidisciplinary science. (Zhang, 2000)

Thus, the public health work is enriched by knowing the distribution of the constraints associated with the disease and functional status of older adults allowing precise location of resources and institutional arrangements in health care and preventive services. Epidemiological studies in the United States of America (USA) and other countries around the elderly, not only focusing on the frequency of disease, but through self-administered questionnaire can assess the physical, social, functional and mental with the opportunity to use standards and techniques to explain epidemiological risk factors involved in the pathophysiological changes that add to the disease. In turn, the timely and systematic epidemiological information provided by different information systems, even with its limitations, will identify the main risks and threats to health in order to establish the needs and demands of this population and infrastructure planning health services, or where appropriate, propose alternative ways that benefit the elderly, offering better quality of life for themselves and their families, and represent a lower cost for institutional services. (Vineis, 1993)

In Mexico, the aging process becomes more evident from the 1970, for 1990 the percentage of older adults accounted for 6.14% of the total population with about 5 million people. 4 Different studies have shown that the profile morbidity and mortality poses a complex situation, in addition to the illness and death attributed to infectious causes, chronic-degenerative disorders are located within a few years in the first place. Other authors point out qualitative and quantitative changes in some of the 10 leading causes of death between the 1970 and 1980.

In this way, as a result of increased survival of the population is likely to occur two patterns of health and illness in the elderly. The first would imply that, despite this increase in survival does not necessarily decrease in proportion of morbidity and disability, so instead of improving the health conditions could worsen as the disease place would be occupied by another. The second assumes that the quality of life of older adults improved by modifying risk factors that are related ...