• Section 1: Epidemiology and scope of problem 1. Worldwide population changes 2. New social structures (divorce, widowhood, rural and urban) 3. Mortality and climate change Section 2: Conditions affecting the elderly (Pathology, impact on daily living, investigations, contribution to ill health management strategies) 4. Balance, falls and mortality 5. Vision 6. Audition 7. Dementia 8. Depression and mood changes (care at home, in residential care, hospital, drug/ECT/cognitive therapy) 9. Dentition 10. Continence 11. Sex (couple and single-sex relationships, heterosexual and same-sex, at home, living alone, residential care) 12. Sleep disorders Section 3: Managing the problem 13. Setting up a one-step gerontology service 14. Investigations BP, BMI, Hb, biochemistry,immunology (what are the normative values, what does the physician need to ask?) 15. Diet and micronutrients: living alone and residential care 16. Polypharmacy getting prescriptions, compliance, drug interactions, drug metabolism changes with age 17. Alternative and complementary therapies 18. Designing living places independent and residential 19. Palliative care: location, chemotherapy, analgesia 20. Caring for carers: professional and non-professional Index & Bibliographies

"This book contains 16 well-written review articles arranged in five sections titled: epidemiology and scope of the problem, conditions affecting elderly women, management problems, common gynaecological problems, and promoting healthy living. […] The main success of this book lies in its ability to initiate discussion and to show some ways of how to handle these issues in geriatric and biogerontological research." Dr. Suresh Rattan, Biogerontology, November 2007"This dual author book helpfully informs us of the medical problems of this fast expanding age group with early chapters on epidemiology and the extent of the problems. [...] This book is designed to educate gynaecologists about these issues, utilising the involvement of experienced specialists in a variety of clinical and non-clinical specialities. It has useful guidelines for best practice, and serves its intended purpose very well." John McGarry FRCOG, Menopause International