Medications That Seniors Should Use Cautiously. A wide range of medications—some relatively new and others long available—can cause serious side effects and other adverse events in people 65 and older if not prescribed with care.

Do Older Women Really Need Osteoporosis Testing Every Two Years? While many women older than 65 years are referred for bone mineral density testing every two years, a new study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" suggests that the interval can safely be much longer.

FDA Approves Expanded Use of Prevnar 13 Vaccine in Patients Aged 50 and Older. With winter and flu season encroaching on much of the United States, we thought you’d be interested in the latest FDA approval to prevent pneumonia in older adults.

Are Your Older Patients at Risk for an Adverse Drug Event? Each year, nearly 100,000 U.S. seniors 65 years and older are hospitalized for adverse drug events according to a study supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in a recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Medicare Extends Open Enrollment Period. Offers seniors more benefits, better choices and lower costs. You may want to share the following information from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) with your older patients.

New Diagnostic Guidelines for Alzheimer's Disease. Your patients may ask you to clarify some details about the highly publicized, revised guidelines for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease jointly published by the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institute on Aging in April 2011. In their first reissue in 27 years, the key difference between the old and the new guidelines is that in 1984 AD was defined primarily as a condition of dementia.

Anemia Is not a Normal Consequence of Aging: Determing the Etiologic Cause and Optimal Treatment of Geriatric Anemia. Anemia is often considered a normal consequence of aging, but is neither normal nor harmless and may have far-reaching effects. While two-thirds of geriatric anemia cases are caused by nutritional deficiency or by chronic disease, the cause is unidentified in up to one-third of cases. Unidentified anemia may be the result of an occult but serious underlying bone marrow failure condition, such as myelodysplastic syndromes.

Evaluating the Etiologic Cause and Optimal Treatment of Geriatric Anemia in the Primary Care Setting: A Case-Based Study. Anemia is a very common problem in the elderly, making this clinical finding a growing concern as the proportion of older individuals in the US population continues to increase. According to current US Census Bureau projections, by 2030 there will be approximately 114.1 million Americans aged 65 years and older representing nearly 25% of the total population. By 2050, that number is anticipated to reach 156 million, more than double the estimated current population of 64.7 million persons older than 65 years.

Sensitive Issues: Older Driver Safety. To many seniors, driving represents independence and mobility. Unfortunately, advancing age is often accompanied by cognitive and motor deficits that compromise driving safety. Here are some tips for helping patients determine when it’s time to ‘hand over the keys.’

Recognizing and Treating Late Life Depression. Like diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, depression is a chronic illness that is common, recurrent, and costly. More than 57.7 million people are currently living with depression in the United States. Depression is the second leading cause of disability for all ages and the leading cause of disability and premature death in individuals aged 15 up to 44 years.

Strategies for Success: Pharmacologic Management of Persistent Pain in the Older Adult. The United States is projected to experience a rapid growth in its older population between 2010 and 2050 as the so-called baby boomers cross into this category. According to current projections, by 2030 there will be approximately 71.5 million Americans aged 65 years and older representing nearly 20% of the total population.

NIHSeniorHealth Site Offers Tips and Tools to Help Seniors Create a Family History. Older Americans are increasingly turning to the Internet for health information. In fact, more than 70% of online seniors look for health and medical information when they go on the Web. NIHSeniorHealth is a health and wellness Web site designed especially for older adults from the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine, both part of the National Institutes of Health.

HIV in Older Patients: It’s a Real Threat. Following the death of her husband, at the age of 60, Grace was dating again. George, a close family friend she had known for a long time, was starting to stay overnight more and more often. Because she was past childbearing age, Grace didn’t think about using condoms. And because she had known George for so long, she didn’t think to ask him about his sexual history. So, Grace was shocked when she tested positive for HIV.