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Differences in Primary Care needs of Older Adult and General population of Adults

Generally, across the globe, adulthood starts from the age of eighteen years, when one is considered to be old enough to make sound decisions in life. Any person whose age goes beyond 65 years is considered to be elderly. Due to age factors among the two categories of adulthood – adults and older adults – the latter tends to be more susceptible to various medical complications than the former. As such, the age factor has a significant difference in the primary care – the initial medical approach at the community level – needs of the two categories of adulthood in the general population. This paper, therefore, reflects on the primary care needs of older adults compared to the general population of adults.

One of the key differences in the basic care needs of an elderly individual and adults in the over-all populace of adults concerns the location of service delivery. The elderly need to access home-based primary healthcare services to respond to their spontaneous medical needs and emergencies quickly. Additionally, they need access to home-based caregivers, such as nurses, to take care of their medical needs (McGilton et al., 2018). Home-based primary healthcare needs and caregivers’ need is unnecessary to the general population of adulthood since they are still energetic enough to access community-based healthcare facilities. Moreover, the general population of adulthood still can access necessary medical checkups instead of older adults who need to be taken to the hospitals.  

Besides the need for home-based primary healthcare service delivery and caregivers, the primary healthcare facilities need to provide other unique programs like physical activities and preventative home visits. Primary healthcare’s main objective is to provide prevention and facilitate health promotion. There is a need for physical activities and preventative home visits to prevent older adults’ age-associated morbidity and disability (Boeckxstaens, Graaf, 2011). Unlike older adults, the general adult population is free from age-associated morbidity and disability. As such, their primary healthcare needs are more reliable and efficient than ever without providing such programs. Moreover, preventive home visits are considered optional for the younger adults by most primary healthcare facilities since most of the younger adults can access preventive programs from healthcare facilities.  

Furthermore, older adults need communication and information to be conveyed in a way that is accessible to every patient within their primary healthcare. The need to be more careful with communication or information delivery as a need for older adults’ primary care is hampered by sensory or cognitive constraints (Bell et al., 2016). Therefore, unlike the younger adults, the cognitive and sensory limitation interferes with their ability to hear, see, or even comprehend medical situations or conditions. Hence, the condition requires most primary care facilities to apply extra effort in communication or information delivery compared to the general population of adults. 

In conclusion, due to age factors among the two categories of adulthood – adults and older adults – the latter tend to be more susceptible to various medical complications than the former. As such, the age factor contributes to a significant difference in the primary care (the initial medical approach at the community level) needs of the two categories of adulthood in the general population. Some of the critical primary care needs of older adults that require more attention than the general adult population include service delivery, special programs like physical exercise, and communication or information delivery.

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References

Bell, S. P., Patel, N., Patel, N., Sonani, R., Badheka, A., & Forman, D. E. (2016). Care of older adults.

Boeckxstaens, P., & De Graaf, P. (2016). Primary care and care for older persons: position paper of the European Forum for Primary Care. Quality in primary care, 19(6), 369.

McGilton, K. S., Vellani, S., Yeung, L., Chishtie, J., Commisso, E., Ploeg, J., … & Puts, M. (2018). Identifying and understanding the health and social care needs of older adults with multiple chronic conditions and their caregivers: a scoping review. BMC geriatrics, 18(1), 1-33.