Elderly and preventive care of the geriatric pathologies in African environment.

ABSTRACT

Senegal will not be spared by the process of the aging of its population. In fact, according to surveys, the demographic increase in the population of the old people, which is 3.5% higher than the national average (2.5%). But for the time being, gerontology problems are not arising in terms of demographic weight, but rather in terms of the breaking up of solidarity networks, uncontrolled urbanization and poverty. As far as health is concerned, the old people generally are faced with the same problems as their Northern counterparts; they are exposed to chronic diseases that demand their taking in charge in a long period of time. Besides, these diseases are a great handicap and they are also disabling diseases. So taking them in charge puts a financial on their meager family budgets or their pensions. In addition, there are no specialists in geriatrics, and those working in the field did not receive any training for that. Moreover, most of our health facilities are lacking in diagnostic means. Therefore, gerontology-geriatrics solutions that are adapted to our socio-economic context should be assigned straight away. The problem is not about stopping the process of aging, which, as a physiological process, is inevitable and irreversible, but rather delaying its effects. The matter at issue will be about how to set up a decentralized and integrated program that is designed to fight against geriatric diseases and disorders and that mainly focuses on screening and primary and secondary prevention, for our low financial resources and the low medical equipment of our health facilities cannot help us to adequately take charge of complications related to these diseases.