Normal versus pathological aging: knowledge of family practice residents

Family physicians may lack discriminatory ability to differentiate normal aging from disease states. To assess such ability, 53 aging-related indicators or symptoms were presented to 65 physicians in three family practice residency programs. Respondents classified each symptom as normal aging or disease. On average, residents classified 73.4% of symptoms correctly. They were more likely to classify disease states correctly (80.0%) than to classify signs of normal aging correctly (66.8%). Misattribution of normal aging signs as disease may prompt physicians to overmedicate and overtreat patients, resulting in adverse clinical outcomes.