Epidemiological Observatory on the Health Conditions of Inpatients Aged 65 or Older at the INRCA Research Hospitals

Life expectancy is continuously increasing in Italy. Aging is generally linked to adaptive modifications of organs and systems that reduce the functional reserve and increase the vulnerability to disease and addiction. This framework constitutes the condition of "frailty", which is associated to an increased risk of multiple adverse events as falls, fractures, disability, institutionalisation and death. To reduce the burden of disability and diseases affecting the quality of life of the elderly and, at the same time weighs heavily on health costs, a high level of managerial efficiency has to be achieved, planning the necessary health and care services and implementing measures to prevent disability in the fragile elderly. Indeed a strongly expanding area of gerontological and geriatric research is focusing on successful aging, that is characterised by a low probability of diseases and related disabilities, by a high level of physical and cognitive functionality and by an active social involvement in daily life. For this reason the project is based on the implementation of a validated system of comprehensive geriatric assessment able to provide detailed measures of the different possible interactions among risk factors. The study aimed at the descriptive-epidemiological collection of the health conditions of older in-patients at the different INRCA research hospitals (Italy). The data set will include personal data, information from the comprehensive geriatric assessment, clinical-care, biological and diagnostic data, collected routinely as well as ad hoc during hospitalisation. Moreover, a blood sample will be taken to performing biomarkers and genetic analyses.