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How old are the elderly?
Prakash Naik. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 1991-04-01
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
Contrary to the experience at the Crichton Royal, our major difficulty is providing in-patient beds for the functionally ill, which again may be a local problem.Functional patients will always require in patient services while one could argue that the long term care of dementia need not, or should not, be in a hospital ward.We no longer have long-stay dementia beds and it seems highly likely that all areas will find their long-term care beds being dismantled.Our con cern is that while we pursue a largely futile case for more long-term dementia beds, the problem of acute functional illness may be forgotten.Functional illness remains more prevalent than dementia, active psychogeriatric services generate increased demand for in-patient treatment for func tional illness (Joint Colleges' Report, 1989) and the ‘¿ graduate' population in the community continues to increase.This will inevitably drift into the psycho geriatric domain and may prove a considerable drain on resources.Itwillbe a mistake to underestimate the future demands of functional illness in old age.
Key findings
- Contrary to the experience at the Crichton Royal, our major difficulty is providing in-patient beds for the functionally ill, which again may be a local problem.Functional patients will always require in patient services while one could argue that the long term care of dementia need not, or should not, be in a hospital ward.We no longer have long-stay dementia beds and it seems highly likely that all areas will find their long-term care beds being dismantled.Our con cern is that while we pursue a largely futile case for more long-term dementia beds, the problem of acute functional illness may be forgotten.Functional illness remains more prevalent than dementia, active psychogeriatric services generate increased demand for in-patient treatment for func tional illness (Joint Colleges' Report, 1989) and the ‘¿ graduate' population in the community continues to increase.This will inevitably drift into the psycho geriatric domain and may prove a considerable drain on resources.Itwillbe a mistake to underestimate the future demands of functional illness in old age.
Why it matters
This commentary discusses the difficulty of providing in-patient beds for functionally ill older people and argues that long-term dementia care need not be in a hospital ward. It warns that focusing on long-term dementia beds may cause the problem of acute functional illness to be forgotten.
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 27/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on senior author's track record, so that was left out: it earned 26 of the 96 points we could judge it on, which is 27 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (The British Journal of Psychiatry) |
| Journal's citation record | 3 / 4 | The British Journal of Psychiatry: journal h-index 376 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 1991 — older than 20 years, still counted |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 1 / 7 | Cited 2 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 0 / 5 | 0.1 citations a year over 37 year(s) since 1991 |
| Impact for its field and year | 0 / 6 | Cited 0.0× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 0 / 6 | No other study in this library cites it |
| Still being cited | 0 / 4 | Cited 0 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | OpenAlex's profile for last-listed author Prakash Naik holds only 5 work(s), too few to judge a track record — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | 0 / 3 | Queen's Medical Centre: institution h-index 517 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 0 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 1 institution(s) in 1 country — scores zero (affiliation lists can be incomplete) |
| Indexed in PubMed | 1 / 2 | Not in PubMed, but has a DOI |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Points | 26 / 96 | Scored on 19 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 26 of the 96 points we could judge it on is 27 out of 100. |
| Total | 27 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
- DOI: 10.1192/s0007125000108700
- Original source →
- Free full text: The British Journal of Psychiatry →
Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Naik, P. (1991). How old are the elderly? The British Journal of Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1192/s0007125000108700
Vancouver
Naik P. How old are the elderly? The British Journal of Psychiatry. 1991. doi:10.1192/s0007125000108700.
BibTeX
@article{naik1991-8334975f,
author = {Naik, Prakash},
title = {{How old are the elderly?}},
journal = {The British Journal of Psychiatry},
year = {1991},
doi = {10.1192/s0007125000108700},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1192/s0007125000108700}
}
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