Assessment of clinical diagnosis, age and gender differences of elderly patients applying to dermatology clinic of a secondary health institute in family medicine aspect. Mehmet Kayhan 1 , Ilhami Unluoglu 2 , Serap Kayhan 3 , Ugur Bilge 2* 1 Public Health Management, Eskişehir, Turkey 2 Department of Family Medicine, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir, Turkey 3 Department of Dermatology, Eskişehir Government Hospital, Eskişehir, Turkey Abstract Occurrence of dermatological diseases can be affected by multiple factors. These factors are personal factors such as race, age, gender, heredity, personal hygiene, socioeconomic degree and environmental factors like climate, geographic region, rural or urban settling and profession. Treatments of dermatological diseases which rank amongst first five common diseases according to the data of World Health Organization are mostly treated by physicians who are not dermatology specialists. In this study, clinical diagnosis, age, gender and seasonal differences of patients admitted to dermatology clinic of a secondary health centre are investigated. Most common 10 disease groups are identified. The most common group of dermatological diseases (25.9%), i.e. papulosquamous and eczematous dermatoses, was seen in 1328 patients. The second most common group of dermatological diseases (25%), i.e. infections and infestations, was seen in 1282 patients. The findings related to this series of cases are, in general terms, consistent with the findings of other retrospective studies. Early diagnosis and treatment is possible for most of the diseases in elderly patients. Keywords: Dermatology, Clinical diagnosis, Age, Gender, Season. Accepted on June 9, 2016 Introduction Skin is the largest organ of the body. The mortality rate is quite lower in skin diseases when compared to many other diseases. However, complaints related to skin are frequently encountered. That is why physicians providing primary healthcare services are required to diagnose and treat properly several disorders and diseases related to skin and its appendages [1]. The admittance rate of the patients with dermatological increases in primary healthcare services. The rate changes, depending on regions, countries and age group of patients [2-4]. Geriatric patients constitute a special group of patients since both skin diseases and chronic systemic diseases are more common in this group [5]. The prevalence of skin disorders is quite high in geriatric patients and skin diseases are the one of the factors which affects quality of life. The incidence and type of the skin diseases should be known in order to plan educations in this area [6]. The aim of this study is to carry out a retrospective analysis of the breakdown of geriatric diagnoses in geriatric patients aged 65 and over, who presented to the dermatology clinics of a secondary healthcare institution. Material and Methods This study is based on the retrospective analysis of the electronic records of patients aged 65 and over, who presented to the dermatology clinics of a secondary healthcare institution between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013. For the purpose of this study, the patients’ clinical diagnoses, age, gender and date of presentation to the hospital were recorded in an electronic database. There were 353 different diagnoses. These diagnoses were then classified into ten groups of clinical diagnosis. Bolognia Dermatology was used as a reference in the classification of diagnoses. The diagnosis groups are provided in Table 1 in the order of frequency. The date and number of approval from the Board of Ethics in Clinical Research, Faculty of Medicine, Eskişehir Osmangazi University are April 21, 2014 and 09. Statistical analysis IBM SPSS-21.0 was used for statistical analyses. The chi- square test was used to test the relationship between categorical variables. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to test the distribution of continuous variables, and Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare independent groups. Categorical ISSN 0970-938X www.biomedres.info Biomed Res- India 2017 Volume 28 Issue 2 Biomedical Research 2017; 28 (2): 630-633 630