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Patient empowerment emerges in a context of health democracy, encouraged by health policies, and developed through the horizontalization of the doctor-patient relationship and expert patients. It is a process based on the awareness of integrated relationships of domination and the struggle to free oneself from them. Oncogeriatrics is a medical discipline specialised in the care of patients over 75 years of age with cancer. This population presents several risk factors of vulnerability when facing cancer that require adapted management. In oncogeriatrics, the patient may feel subject to the doctor, the cancer and society. We used the grounded theory method to conduct a qualitative study of people over 75 years of age with cancer to explore the relevance of the concept of empowerment in this population. Six of the seven participants stated that they would submit to the doctor's advice because of an ingrained habit of patriarchy and a lack of alternatives. One patient described hierarchical relationships as structuring and enabling survival. Awareness of dominance in the doctor-patient relationship was not, for the most participants, accompanied by a need to free oneself from it. Patients expressed the need for positive relationships with the health care team, the wish not to suffer, and to maintain their life as it is (keeping their activities and their home). Finally, ageing as a gradual withdrawal from social life to domestic life runs counter to the community dimension of empowerment. In conclusion, our results suggest that patient empowerment is not a framework for studying the cancer experience that corresponds to the needs of the elderly. We prefer to use the patient's experience as an indicator of the needs of this population to develop tools to improve their care. ; L'empowerment du patient émerge dans un contexte de démocratie sanitaire, encouragé par les politiques de santé, et se développe au travers de l'horizontalisation de la relation médecin-malade, et des patients experts. Il s'agit d'un processus basé sur la prise de conscience des rapports de domination intégrés et la lutte pour s'en libérer. L'oncogériatrie est une discipline médicale spécialisée dans la prise en charge des patients âgés de plus de 75 ans atteints d'un cancer. Cette population présente plusieurs facteurs de risque de vulnérabilité face au cancer nécessitant une prise en charge adaptée. En oncogériatrie le patient peut se sentir soumit au médecin, au cancer et à la société. Nous avons utilisé la méthode de la théorie ancrée pour conduire une étude qualitative auprès de personnes âgées de plus de 75 ans et atteintes d'un cancer pour explorer la pertinence du concept d'empowerment dans cette population. Six des sept participants déclaraient de soumettre à l'avis du médecin, par habitude ancrée du patriarcat, et par absence d'alternative. Un patient décrivait les rapports hiérarchiques comme structurants et permettant la survie. La conscience des rapports de domination dans la relation médecin-malade n'était majoritairement pas accompagnée d'un besoin de s'en affranchir. Les patients exprimaient le besoin de relations positives avec l'équipe soignante, le souhait de ne pas souffrir, et de maintenir leur vie comme elle l'est (conserver leurs activités et leur domicile). Enfin, le vieillissement en tant que retrait progressif de la vie sociale vers la vie domestique va à l'encontre de la dimension communautaire de l'empowerment. En conclusion, nos résultats suggèrent que l'empowerment du patient n'est pas un cadre d'étude du vécu du cancer correspondant aux besoins des personnes âgées. Nous préférons utiliser l'expérience des patients comme révélateur des besoins de cette population afin de développer des outils permettant d'améliorer leur prise en charge.

Patient empowerment emerges in a context of health democracy, encouraged by health policies, and developed through the horizontalization of the doctor-patient relationship and expert patients. It is a process based on the awareness of integrated relationships of domination and the struggle to free oneself from them. Oncogeriatrics is a medical discipline specialised in the care of patients over 75 years of age with cancer. This population presents several risk factors of vulnerability when facing cancer that require adapted management. In oncogeriatrics, the patient may feel subject to the doctor, the cancer and society. We used the grounded theory method to conduct a qualitative study of people over 75 years of age with cancer to explore the relevance of the concept of empowerment in this population. Six of the seven participants stated that they would submit to the doctor's advice because of an ingrained habit of patriarchy and a lack of alternatives. One patient described hierarchical relationships as structuring and enabling survival. Awareness of dominance in the doctor-patient relationship was not, for the most participants, accompanied by a need to free oneself from it. Patients expressed the need for positive relationships with the health care team, the wish not to suffer, and to maintain their life as it is (keeping their activities and their home). Finally, ageing as a gradual withdrawal from social life to domestic life runs counter to the community dimension of empowerment. In conclusion, our results suggest that patient empowerment is not a framework for studying the cancer experience that corresponds to the needs of the elderly. We prefer to use the patient's experience as an indicator of the needs of this population to develop tools to improve their care. ; L'empowerment du patient émerge dans un contexte de démocratie sanitaire, encouragé par les politiques de santé, et se développe au travers de l'horizontalisation de la relation médecin-malade, et des patients experts. Il s'agit d'un processus basé sur la prise de conscience des rapports de domination intégrés et la lutte pour s'en libérer. L'oncogériatrie est une discipline médicale spécialisée dans la prise en charge des patients âgés de plus de 75 ans atteints d'un cancer. Cette population présente plusieurs facteurs de risque de vulnérabilité face au cancer nécessitant une prise en charge adaptée. En oncogériatrie le patient peut se sentir soumit au médecin, au cancer et à la société. Nous avons utilisé la méthode de la théorie ancrée pour conduire une étude qualitative auprès de personnes âgées de plus de 75 ans et atteintes d'un cancer pour explorer la pertinence du concept d'empowerment dans cette population. Six des sept participants déclaraient de soumettre à l'avis du médecin, par habitude ancrée du patriarcat, et par absence d'alternative. Un patient décrivait les rapports hiérarchiques comme structurants et permettant la survie. La conscience des rapports de domination dans la relation médecin-malade n'était majoritairement pas accompagnée d'un besoin de s'en affranchir. Les patients exprimaient le besoin de relations positives avec l'équipe soignante, le souhait de ne pas souffrir, et de maintenir leur vie comme elle l'est (conserver leurs activités et leur domicile). Enfin, le vieillissement en tant que retrait progressif de la vie sociale vers la vie domestique va à l'encontre de la dimension communautaire de l'empowerment. En conclusion, nos résultats suggèrent que l'empowerment du patient n'est pas un cadre d'étude du vécu du cancer correspondant aux besoins des personnes âgées. Nous préférons utiliser l'expérience des patients comme révélateur des besoins de cette population afin de développer des outils permettant d'améliorer leur prise en charge.

Patient empowerment emerges in a context of health democracy, encouraged by health policies, and developed through the horizontalization of the doctor-patient relationship and expert patients. It is a process based on the awareness of integrated relationships of domination and the struggle to free oneself from them. Oncogeriatrics is a medical discipline specialised in the care of patients over 75 years of age with cancer. This population presents several risk factors of vulnerability when facing cancer that require adapted management. In oncogeriatrics, the patient may feel subject to the doctor, the cancer and society. We used the grounded theory method to conduct a qualitative study of people over 75 years of age with cancer to explore the relevance of the concept of empowerment in this population. Six of the seven participants stated that they would submit to the doctor's advice because of an ingrained habit of patriarchy and a lack of alternatives. One patient described hierarchical relationships as structuring and enabling survival. Awareness of dominance in the doctor-patient relationship was not, for the most participants, accompanied by a need to free oneself from it. Patients expressed the need for positive relationships with the health care team, the wish not to suffer, and to maintain their life as it is (keeping their activities and their home). Finally, ageing as a gradual withdrawal from social life to domestic life runs counter to the community dimension of empowerment. In conclusion, our results suggest that patient empowerment is not a framework for studying the cancer experience that corresponds to the needs of the elderly. We prefer to use the patient's experience as an indicator of the needs of this population to develop tools to improve their care. ; L'empowerment du patient émerge dans un contexte de démocratie sanitaire, encouragé par les politiques de santé, et se développe au travers de l'horizontalisation de la relation médecin-malade, et des patients experts. Il s'agit d'un processus basé sur la prise de conscience des rapports de domination intégrés et la lutte pour s'en libérer. L'oncogériatrie est une discipline médicale spécialisée dans la prise en charge des patients âgés de plus de 75 ans atteints d'un cancer. Cette population présente plusieurs facteurs de risque de vulnérabilité face au cancer nécessitant une prise en charge adaptée. En oncogériatrie le patient peut se sentir soumit au médecin, au cancer et à la société. Nous avons utilisé la méthode de la théorie ancrée pour conduire une étude qualitative auprès de personnes âgées de plus de 75 ans et atteintes d'un cancer pour explorer la pertinence du concept d'empowerment dans cette population. Six des sept participants déclaraient de soumettre à l'avis du médecin, par habitude ancrée du patriarcat, et par absence d'alternative. Un patient décrivait les rapports hiérarchiques comme structurants et permettant la survie. La conscience des rapports de domination dans la relation médecin-malade n'était majoritairement pas accompagnée d'un besoin de s'en affranchir. Les patients exprimaient le besoin de relations positives avec l'équipe soignante, le souhait de ne pas souffrir, et de maintenir leur vie comme elle l'est (conserver leurs activités et leur domicile). Enfin, le vieillissement en tant que retrait progressif de la vie sociale vers la vie domestique va à l'encontre de la dimension communautaire de l'empowerment. En conclusion, nos résultats suggèrent que l'empowerment du patient n'est pas un cadre d'étude du vécu du cancer correspondant aux besoins des personnes âgées. Nous préférons utiliser l'expérience des patients comme révélateur des besoins de cette population afin de développer des outils permettant d'améliorer leur prise en charge.

El Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) supone un cambio en nuestras metodologías docentes, que deben orientarse hacia una mayor participación del alumno en el proceso de enseñanzaaprendizaje, así como a satisfacer la necesidad de formación del mundo laboral. Por ello, y en base a la necesidad de nuestra Universidad de adaptar la docencia de Farmacia al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior, la Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, ha desarrollado un proyecto para implantar un aula que simule una Oficina de Farmacia. Entre los perfiles laborales del farmacéutico, el de Oficina de Farmacia es el más frecuente, por ser esta la ocupación laboral mayoritaria. La labor en las farmacias comunitarias consiste básicamente en la conservación, dispensación, asesoramiento y elaboración de medicamentos. Todo ello, unido al ejercicio de la atención farmacéutica, conlleva una gran carga de responsabilidad, un conocimiento y vigilancia de la legislación establecida al respecto y una base científica y técnica importante. La farmacia es, a su vez, un centro de educación y prevención sanitaria, dietética y cosmética. Con el objetivo de que nuestros alumnos desarrollen todas las competencias necesarias para el farmacéutico en la Facultad de Salud se implantó el Aula de la Farmacia. ; The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) represents a shift in our teaching methodology, which should now be steered towards a greater participation of students in the teaching-learning process and should satisfy the employment market's need for trained professionals. In this context, our university has sought to adapt its pharmacy teaching programme to the EHEA, and so the Faculty of Health Sciences of the CEU Cardenal Herrera University has developed a project to create a space that simulates a working pharmacy. Among the different professional profiles within the discipline of pharmacy, a position in a chemist's/drugstore is the most common, as the majority of pharmacists are employed as such. The work of community pharmacies basically consists of the storing, dispensing and preparation of medication. These tasks, combined with the pharmaceutical care provided to patients and customers, involve a great deal of responsibility that depends on knowledge and safeguarding of the current legislation and a solid scientific and technical training. A pharmacy is, at the same time, a centre of education and prevention in health, diet and cosmetics. With all of this in mind, the Pharmacy Room was created by the Health Sciences Faculty with the objective of allowing our students to develop all the skills expected of a pharmacist.

Chapter 1 -- Disability prevalence and support; What is a disability?; Technical definitions of disability; Understanding disabilities; Living with a disability; A profile of people with disability; Disability snapshot; Health status and risk factors of Australians with disability; Disability, ageing and carers; Disability support services; About the NDIS; Understanding the NDIS: how does the scheme work and am I eligible for funding?; Chapter 2 -- Disability rights and discrimination ; Know your rights: disability discrimination; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability.

Objetivo: Analisar as situações de conflito na equipe de atenção básica como possível catalisadoras de relações democráticas no trabalho, favorecendo a atuação em equipe. Método: Estudo qualitativo com equipe de saúde da família de um município do interior paulista. Os dados coletados incluíram observação sistemática e entrevista com trabalhadores que foram organizados e analisados a partir da confrontação com o referencial teórico do processo de trabalho em saúde. Utilizou-se da análise de conteúdo temática. Resultados: Participaram 16 trabalhadores. Os dados estão organizados em duas categorias temáticas: A recepção da unidade como local onde os conflitos ficam mais explícitos e O conflito como abertura para construção de relações democráticas no trabalho de equipe. Conclusão: O recebimento dos usuários na recepção e quem vai ou não trabalhar nesse espaço revelam valores e concepções diferentes sobre o cuidado de cada profissional, situação que gera conflito. No entanto, ideias antagônicas situadas no conflito são fecundas por serem capazes de se complementarem e propiciarem um salto qualitativo nas relações da equipe, com tendência a influenciar a diminuição das vulnerabilidades das relações entre os sujeitos. Essa é uma necessidade premente e atual na discussão envolvendo a reorganização das práticas em saúde. ; Objetivo: Analizar las situaciones de conflicto en el equipo de atención básica como posible catalizadoras de relaciones democráticas en el trabajo, favoreciendo la actuación en equipo. Método: Estudio cualitativo con equipo de salud de la familia de un municipio del interior del Estado de São Paulo. Los datos recogidos incluyeron observación sistemática y entrevista con trabajadores que fueron organizados y analizados mediante la confrontación con el marco de referencia teórico del proceso laboral en salud. Se utilizó el análisis de contenido temático. Resultados: Participaron 16 trabajadores. Los datos están organizados en dos categorías temáticas: La recepción de la unidad como sitio donde los conflictos resultan explícitos y El conflicto como apertura para construcción de relaciones democráticas en el trabajo de equipo. Conclusión: El recibimiento a los usuarios en la recepción y quienes van o no van a trabajar en dicho espacio revelan valores y concepciones diferentes sobre el cuidado de cada profesional, situación que genera conflicto. Sin embargo, ideas antagónicas ubicadas en el conflicto son fecundas por ser capaces de completarse y facilitar un salto cualitativo en las relaciones del equipo, con tendencia a influenciar la disminución de las vulnerabilidades de las relaciones entre los sujetos. Esa es una necesidad apremiante y actual en la discusión involucrando la reorganización de las prácticas sanitarias. ; Objective: To analyze conflict situations in the basic care team as possible catalysts of democratic relations at work, favoring team performance. Method: A qualitative study with a family health team from a municipality in the interior of São Paulo State. The data collected included systematic observation and interviews with workers who were organized and analyzed from the confrontation with the theoretical reference of the health work process. Thematic content analysis was used. Results: 16 workers participated. The data are organized into two thematic categories: the reception of unity as a place where conflicts become more explicit, and the conflict as an opening for building democratic relationships in teamwork. Conclusion: Receiving users at the reception and who will or will not work in this space reveals different values and conceptions about the care each professional provides, and constitutes a situation that generates conflict. However, opposing ideas in the conflict are fruitful because they are able to complement each other and provide a qualitative leap in team relations, with a tendency to influence a reduction in the vulnerabilities of the relations between the subjects. This is a pressing and current need in the discussion involving the reorganization of health practices.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the feasibility of linking data from the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR), the National Death Index (NDI), and state-managed databases for hospital admissions and emergency presentations; to evaluate data completeness and concordance between datasets for common variables. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS: Cohort design; probabilistic/deterministic data linkage of merged records for patients treated in hospital for stroke or transient ischaemic attack from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Descriptive statistics for data matching success; concordance of demographic variables common to linked databases; sensitivity and specificity of AuSCR in-hospital death data for predicting NDI registrations. RESULTS: Data for 16 214 patients registered in the AuSCR during 2009-2013 were linked with one or more state datasets: 15 482 matches (95%) with hospital admissions data, and 12 902 matches (80%) with emergency department presentations data were made. Concordance of AuSCR and hospital admissions data exceeded 99% for sex, age, in-hospital death (each κ = 0.99), and Indigenous status (κ = 0.83). Of 1498 registrants identified in the AuSCR as dying in hospital, 1440 (96%) were also recorded by the NDI as dying in hospital. In-hospital death in AuSCR data had 98.7% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity for predicting in-hospital death in the NDI. CONCLUSION: We report the first linkage of data from an Australian national clinical quality disease registry with routinely collected data from several national and state government health datasets. Data linkage enriches the clinical registry dataset and provides additional information beyond that for the acute care setting and quality of life at follow-up, allowing clinical outcomes for people with stroke (mortality and hospital contacts) to be more comprehensively assessed.

The purpose of this article was to conduct a review on the determinants of maternal morbidity and mortality, obstetric health scenario, especially after the implementation of the Janani Surksha Yojana (JSY) and recognise the existing gaps in research in obstetric health and healthcare utilisation in India. The articles were retrieved using search engines like Google Scholar and PubMed, using specific combination of terms along with the grey literature available in national and regional health databases. Although the current medical knowledge and interventions are capable to tackle most physical preconditions responsible for maternal deaths, yet the utilisation of healthcare facilities depends on the available health infrastructure, human resources and quality of services that are accessible and acceptable to the beneficiaries. Acceptability especially is impacted by the health-seeking behaviour of a community. The implementation of JSY is believed to contribute to the decline of maternal mortality ratio, yet maternal health outcome reports gross inequity in terms of utilisation of antenatal care and postnatal care at many sub-national levels. Thus, micro-level studies are required to understand critically the level of utilisation of formal healthcare facilities, in order to ensure an unscathed maternal health profile throughout India.

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of telemedicine as a way to reduce COVID-19 infections was noted and consequently deregulated. However, the degree of telemedicine regulation varies from country to country, which may alter the widespread use of telemedicine. This study aimed to clarify the telepsychiatry regulations for each collaborating country/region before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe used snowball sampling within a global network of international telepsychiatry experts. Thirty collaborators from 17 different countries/regions responded to a questionnaire on barriers to the use and implementation of telepsychiatric care, including policy factors such as regulations and reimbursement at the end of 2019 and as of May 2020.ResultsThirteen of 17 regions reported a relaxation of regulations due to the pandemic; consequently, all regions surveyed stated that telepsychiatry was now possible within their public healthcare systems. In some regions, restrictions on prescription medications allowed via telepsychiatry were eased, but in 11 of the 17 regions, there were still restrictions on prescribing medications via telepsychiatry. Lower insurance reimbursement amounts for telepsychiatry consultations v. in-person consultations were reevaluated in four regions, and consequently, in 15 regions telepsychiatry services were reimbursed at the same rate (or higher) than in-person consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic.ConclusionsOur results confirm that, due to COVID-19, the majority of countries surveyed are altering telemedicine regulations that had previously restricted the spread of telemedicine. These findings provide information that could guide future policy and regulatory decisions, which facilitate greater scale and spread of telepsychiatry globally.

COVID-19 is proving to be the long awaited 'big one': a pandemic capable of bringing societies and economies to their knees. There is an urgent need to examine how COVID-19 – as a health and development crisis - unfolded the way it did it and to consider possibilities for post-pandemic transformations and for rethinking development more broadly. Drawing on over a decade of research on epidemics, we argue that the origins, unfolding and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic require analysis that addresses both structural political-economic conditions alongside far less ordered, 'unruly' processes reflecting complexity, uncertainty, contingency and context-specificity. This structural-unruly duality in the conditions and processes of pandemic emergence, progression and impact provides a lens to view three key challenge areas. The first is how scientific advice and evidence are used in policy, when conditions are rigidly 'locked in' to established power relations and yet so uncertain. Second is how economies function, with the COVID-19 crisis having revealed the limits of a conventional model of economic growth. The third concerns how new forms of politics can become the basis of reshaped citizen-state relations in confronting a pandemic, such as those around mutual solidarity and care. COVID-19 demonstrates that we face an uncertain future, where anticipation of and resilience to major shocks must become the core problematic of development studies and practice. Where mainstream approaches to development have been top down, rigid and orientated towards narrowly-defined economic goals, post-COVID-19 development must have a radically transformative, egalitarian and inclusive knowledge and politics at its core.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- How to use the book -- Before we start -- Governance scenario 1: My first governance exercise with Excel -- Governance scenario 2: Child health monitoring in primary and community care -- Governance scenario 3: Outpatient orthopaedic clinic in secondary care -- Governance scenario 4: Weighing the evidence -- Governance scenario 5: Comparison with national performance -- Governance scenario 6: Risk management in patient care -- Appendix Getting the data from your proprietary system and into Excel -- Index

The recent collection of out-of-home care data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has enabled an analysis of placement trends for the three year period 1993-1996. Significant findings include a sharp increase in overall numbers of children placed into care and a continuing decline in the use of residential/group care. The data are considered in the context of longer term placement trends and some implications for service delivery are discussed.

The initial exponential growth rate of an epidemic is an important measure that follows directly from data at hand, commonly used to infer the basic reproduction number. As the growth rates λ(t) of tested positive COVID-19 cases have crossed the threshold in many countries, with negative numbers as surrogate for disease transmission deceleration, lockdowns lifting are linked to the behavior of the momentary reproduction numbers r(t), often called R0. Important to note that this concept alone can be easily misinterpreted as it is bound to many internal assumptions of the underlying model and significantly affected by the assumed recovery period. Here we present our experience, as part of the Basque Country Modeling Task Force (BMTF), in monitoring the development of the COVID-19 epidemic, by considering not only the behaviour of r(t) estimated for the new tested positive cases—significantly affected by the increased testing capacities, but also the momentary growth rates for hospitalizations, ICU admissions, deceased and recovered cases, in assisting the Basque Health Managers and the Basque Government during the lockdown lifting measures. Two different data sets, collected and then refined during the COVID-19 responses, are used as an exercise to estimate the momentary growth rates and reproduction numbers over time in the Basque Country, and the implications of using those concepts to make decisions about easing lockdown and relaxing social distancing measures are discussed. These results are potentially helpful for task forces around the globe which are now struggling to provide real scientific advice for health managers and governments while the lockdown measures are relaxed.

Internationally, shifts to more urbanised populations, and resultant reductions in engagements with nature, have been a contributing factor to the mental health crisis facing many developed and developing countries. While the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced recent trends in many countries to give access to green spaces more weight in political decision making, nature-based activities as a form of intervention for those with mental health problems constitute a very small part of patient pathways of care. Nature-based interventions, such as ecotherapy, are increasingly used as therapeutic solutions for people with common mental health problems. However, there is little data about the potential costs and benefits of ecotherapy, making it difficult to offer robust assessments of its cost-effectiveness. This paper explores the capacity for ecotherapy to be cost-effective as a healthcare intervention. Using a pragmatic scoping review of the literature to understand where the potential costs and health benefit lie, we applied value of information methodology to identify what research is needed to inform future cost-effectiveness assessments. We show that there is the potential for ecotherapy for people with mild to moderate common mental health problems to be cost-effective but significant further research is required. Furthermore, nature-based interventions such as ecotherapy also confer potential social and wider returns on investment, strengthening the case for further research to better inform robust commissioning.

Una visión positiva del envejecimiento de los humanos, es aquella que considera al proceso biológico de envejecimiento como un triunfo. Como la victoria de la resistencia y la voluntad de los seres humanos, ayudados por la ciencia y las nuevas tecnologías. Estos y otros factores generaron mayor bienestar; salvó a los seres humanos de todas las edades de muchas enfermedades y aumentó la esperanza de vida de mujeres y hombres. Sin embargo, el uso indiscriminado y sin control de materias primas por la gran industria contribuyó al deterioro del medio ambiente. Paralelamente con el desarrollo industrial, la población del mundo aumentó, con cambios en la estructura de la población, más evidente a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, cuando se comienza a observar un incremento de los porcentajes de personas de 60 años o más. En 1950 el porcentaje de personas de 60 años o más era de 8%, llegando a 10% en el año 2000, previéndose que llegará a 21% en el 2050. En América Latina el 9% de la población tiene 60 años o más y para el 2050, uno de cada cinco latinoamericanos tendrá esa edad. Venezuela casi sextuplicó su población en los últimos cincuenta años, hasta los actuales 28 millones; cerca del 8% de ellos son mayores de 60 años. Estos cambios demográficos plantean la necesidad de reformas institucionales y la formulación de políticas de salud pública que respondan a las necesidades de esa población. El envejecimiento se acompaña de discapacidad, fragilidad, enfermedades crónicas y dependencia. El envejecimiento de la población trae a un primer plano el modelo de atención primaria para la atención de los adultos mayores en el seno de sus comunidades, para lo cual se requiere, al lado de una mayor sensibilidad social por parte del Estado venezolano, una planificación sanitaria racional. ; Some authors consider the human aging process as a triumph. This positive perception is understood as a victory of the human beings striving to have better way of life, with the help of science and new technological developments. These and other factors contributed to the improvement of the quality of life, saving human beings of all ages from many diseases, and increasing life expectancy for both men and women. However, in many cases the indiscriminate use of raw materials, without proper control, has contributed to the progressive deterioration of the environmental milieu. Parallel with industrialization, the world population increased with changes in its structure, substantially evident in the second part of the XX century, when an increase in the percentages of people of 60 or more years of age took place. In 1950 the proportion of people over 60 years was 8%, in the year 2000, it increased up to 10%, and is expected to arrive to 21% by 2050. Actually, in Latin-American countries 9% of their population has 60 or more years of age; and by 2050, one out of every five Latin-Americans will be of that age. In the last 50 years, Venezuelan population grew six times, increasing from 5 millions in 1950 up to 28 millions in 2008; about 8% of them are 60 or more years old. These demographic changes urge institutional and public health plans to take proper care to that particular segment of the population. Men and women in their advances ages suffer increased fragility, incapacity, chronic illness and dependency. Aging of population brings to our attention the primary care attention model, to take proper health care of elderly in the community. To achieve that goal, a greater social sensibility from the Venezuelan Government is needed as well as a rational sanitary planning. ; 3-13 ; Sociedad Venezolana de Endocrinología y Metabolismo ; osunacja@ula.ve