[Screening the elderly: many reasons not to do it, one to recommend it]

Screening for subclinical diseases does not seem to provide much benefit to older patients. In fact, screening programmes in the frail elderly may do even more harm than good. They often do not profit from such interventions, because they have less physiological reserve, greater comorbidity and a shorter life expectancy. But not all older people are frail and the population of the elderly is very heterogeneous. We propose a screening model to stratify older adults into relatively homogeneous groups based on their frailty and health-related needs in order to design efficient care and services for all segments.