Geriatrics in family practice. A comparison of data from Wisconsin and Virginia.

For 109 Wisconsin family practices, 18% of all contacts were with patients 65 years of age and older. Of these contacts, 45% took place in the office and 40% in the hospital; the patient was female in 58.7%. The number of problems or diagnoses was 2.28 per patient contact. Comparison of the geriatric problem profile from the Wisconsin study with similar data from Virginia showed striking similarity. The diagnostic category "diseases of the circulatory system" contained more than 30% of patient problems. No other category contained 10% or more problems in either study. The problem profiles for men and women were almost identical, suggesting little difference in medical care needs according to sex.