Morbidity trends of elderly people registered in Croatian family practice: a longitudinal study based on routinely collected data.

The research aim was to determine the overall morbidity trends in Croatian elderly population. The morbidity data recorded in family practice (FP) were extracted from Croatian Health Service Yearbooks for the years 1995-2012. The percentage of diagnoses in elderly people registered in FM was always higher then their shares in overall population, and with increased trend by 121%. The most frequently registered diagnostic groups were cardiovascular and neoplasms, followed by the groups of endocrine, urogenital and musculoskeletal diseases. The less frequently registered were the groups of infectious disease, injuries and ear diseases. However, the situation is somewhat different when looking at the amount of the increase. The Z codes increased the most, followed by endocrine diseases and neoplasms. Again, the less pronounced increase was observed in the groups of respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal, infectious diseases and injuries. The growing number of the older people and changing morbidity patterns will obviously influence both the entire society and the health care system. A new clinical and cost effective models of practice would be needed as well as the different models of personnel training.