Twenty-year longitudinal study on aged people in Budapest

The present work reports on a 20-year longitudinal study in Budapest. Eight-hundred-sixty-four subjects who considered themselves healthy, took part in the clinical examination that included women age 55 years and older, and men of 60 years older at the start of the study. The data of the 3080 clinical check-ups have been processed and analyzed. Diseases of the circulatory system occurred most frequently. Ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and pulmonary emphysema showed a definite age-dependency. Cataract, fundus sclerosis, decline of visual acuity, as well as hyperplasia of prostate also proved to be age-dependent. The occurrence of osteoporosis and spondylarthrosis increased significantly with age. In the mentioned diseases, correlations were found between the frequency and the number of follow-up years. In relation to our study, we can state that the importance of the risk factors decrease with aging. The pathological effects of the risk factors occur in earlier in life and the truly endangered persons would not grow old.