Prevention in the elderly: A necessary priority for general practitioners

Abstract

Prevention is viewed as a key issue for general practice, yet there is a lack of evidence regarding general practitioners’ interventions in both middle-aged and elderly people. This is despite the fact that recommendations and key indicators for monitoring the use of clinical preventive strategies aimed at these groups are available and that both the World Health Organization and European Commission endorse the importance of interventions for healthy and active ageing. This paper draws on two keynote presentations given at the 2015 autumn meeting of the European General Practice Research Network (EGPRN) in Edirne, Turkey (17–20 October 2015). According to the EU2020 strategy, general practitioners should design and implement prevention services and programmes to promote healthy and active ageing. Their primary focus should be on interventions on multimorbid patients, either by improving prescribing and adherence to medical plans or by targeting to fall and frailty prevention and vaccination uptake.