[« It's normal to get old and weak » : should functional decline be addressed with elderly patients in family...

Among the health strategies to respond to the aging of the population, initiatives for the screening and management of age-related health issues are implemented, including in family medicine. Preliminary results of a qualitative study suggest that elderly people are ambivalent about anticipating age-related issues, tend to trivialize them and to be reluctant to discuss them spontaneously with their doctors. However, they find relevant that their family doctor brings up the topic with specific questions, because that allows initiating a discussion about some of these sensitive issue. It appears that the awareness of the existing management of geriatric syndromes and functional decline possibilities is rather low. A screening initiative is therefore an opportunity to address these different issues and to inform patients about existing solutions.