[Health and social challenges originated by the aging of the population]

The increment in ageing ratios, mainly in developed countries, and the increment in life expectancy, 83 years-of-age for Spanish women, have created a new caring scenery in health care confronting the "Geriatrisation of Medicine" and social care dealing with systems covering the needs of an aged population pertaining to a society whose family nucleus meets increasing difficulties for attending their elderly members. An efficacious geriatric care system should be based on solid hospital care, community oriented care and integration of health and social care, always aimed towards functional recovery of the individual and the integration of elderly people in their communities.