| Summary: | In a study of the disease pattern of the elderly in Nigeria, a sample consisting of 352 patients aged 60 years' and above hospitalised between January 1995 and December 1996 at the Medical Wards of a major Teaching Hospital were reviewed retrospectively. The problems most frequently encountered were the cardiovascular diseases (especially hypertensive heart disease and cerebrovascular accident) which accounted for 186 (52.8%) of all the admissions. Neoplasms, especially hepatoma and cancer of the prostate were next in frequency, occurring in 42 (11.9%) of the admissions, followed by endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (56 or 10.2%), respiratory disease (30 or 8.5%), disease of the nervous system (24 or 6.8%), disease of the digestive system (18 or 5.1%) and renal diseases 16 or 4.5%). The median stay in hospital for the patients was 18 days.
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