Introduction: The proportion of the elderly population in the United Arab Emirates is constantly growing. The aging population presents a challenge for the public healthcare system. Accurate health data is required both from an epidemiological and strategic health care planning perspective. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of disease, impairment and disability among the elderly. Methodology: A retrospective study was carried out and records of comprehensive assessment forms of elderly patients aged 60 years and over registered in the elderly home based primary care at Dubai Health Authority were reviewed and analyzed. Results: The gender ratio of the elderly patients in the study was 2.1 female: 1.0 male. The mean (SD) age was 78.77 (9.50) years. The majority of elderly patients (70.4%) had 4 or more multiple chronic conditions. The most common prevalent disease was hypertension (67.5%), followed by dementia (57.8), diabetes mellitus (52.4%), osteoarthritis (45.6%) and cerebrovascular accident (38.8%). Almost 70% of elderly patients were either bed bound or chair bound. Functional Assessment (ADL) showed that, only 5.8% of elderly patients were independent. Conclusion: This study provides a valuable insight into the magnitude of disease, impairment and disability among elderly patients. It revealed that, the prevalence of multiple chronic conditions is high. The aging population continues to need a high quality care program, focused on managing multiple chronic conditions and preventing impairment and disability in order to improve health and quality of life of elderly.

Background: The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the delivery of medical care across the world.  The objective of the study is to understand and document the preventive steps implemented on geriatric services in the primary health care centers during COVID-19 pandemic. Design and Methods: This is a retrospective study carried on geriatric services utilization (Geriatric clinic- osteoporosis clinic – Memory and dementia clinic) in primary health care centers in Dubai Health Authority in 2020.Results: The study showed that the overall in person visits for all geriatric service in 2020 declined by almost 70%. The total number of telephone consultations in geriatric clinics, osteoporosis clinics and memory clinics were 1479, 1149 and 104 respectively. The COVID-19 pandemic had led to a reduction in most of the geriatric services including outpatient clinics, screening and referral. Telephone consultation provided a foundation for delivery of the service.Conclusion: This study reflected the potential for telehealth services to bring benefits and convenience to the geriatric population, even after the end of the pandemic.

Vertebral fractures are one of the most common fractures associated with low bone mineral density. However two-thirds to three-fourths of patients with vertebral fractures are not clinically recognized. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of vertebral fractures in patients referred for bone densitometry and the most common site of fracture. The study was carried out in the osteoporosis clinic in Dubai primary health care center. A total of 120 patients were examined using the dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Of all the patients, 48.3% were osteoporotic and 40.9% were osteopenic. The overall prevalence of vertebral fracture was 14.2%. The result showed that the prevalence of vertebral fracture was higher in female compared to male (15.7% and 9.7%, respectively). It was found that patients aged 80 and above had the highest prevalence of vertebral fracture (54.5%). Undiagnosed vertebral fractures were common. Therefore, it is crucial to prevent vertebral fracture through early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of osteoporosis.

Primary Health Care Services Sector (PHCSS) of Dubai Health Authority (DHA) provides many services dedicated to seniors. However, there have been no studies to date that consulted the seniors themselves regarding these services. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the age-friendliness of outpatient clinic's services provided in PHCSS from perspective of elderly service recipients. Methods: Three focus groups were designed. The focus groups included receivers of care (senior patients and caregivers for senior patients) and healthcare providers (physicians, nurses, administrators and medical record officers). The discussed topics in the focus groups were based on WHO's recommended three domains of improvement for an age-friendly Primary Health Care (PHC): Information, education and training, community-based health care management systems, and the physical environment.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) effect bone metabolism, but the relationship of T2DM with bone mineral density remains inconsistent across studies. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between osteoporosis and T2DM in elderly patients.A total of 313 elderly was included in the study with a mean age of 68.20±7.07 years. The prevalence of osteoporosis in this study was 39.5%. The results showed that, non-diabetic elderly had higher prevalence of osteoporosis in comparison to diabetic elderly (44.0% and 33.1%, respectively). This difference was statistically significant (P=0.007). It was observed that males had higher femur and lumbar spine BMD in comparison with females. The present study gave better understanding of the effect of diabetes mellitus on bone architecture will help to improve the quality of provided health services at the primary health care level hence, improving the outcomes.

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