Evaluation of the Clinical and Demographic Characteristics of Patients aged 65 and Over Who Applied to the Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the cilinical and demographic characteristics of geriatric patients aged 65 and over who presented at the physical medicine and rehabilitation polyclinic of university hospital. Material and Methods: The study was conducted in the physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR) department of Harran University Hospital. In the study, the records of geriatric patients aged 65 and over who presented at the PMR polyclinic in the first 10 months of 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. Demographic characteristics and diagnoses of patients in the geriatric age group were examined. Results: A total of 759 people were included in the study, 546 of whom were women (71.9%) and 213 of them (28.1%) were men aged 65 and over. The gender distribution was determined to be significantly predominantly female (p<0.001). The mean age of the patients was 72.3±6 (65-98) years. The mean age of men was 71.6±5 (65-89) and the mean age of women was 72.6±6 (65-98), and there was no significant difference between the mean ages of both groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: We observed that the most common diagnoses of the older adult patients who presented at our PMR polyclinic, the most frequent were degenerative diseases and osteoporosis, followed by other diagnoses. To reduce pain and disability in patients, it is important that protective measures are taken against the risk factors that can worsen the clinical condition of the disease in older adults. Nevertheless, we think that there is a need for multicenter clinical studies with wider patient participation related to the prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases in elderly individuals.