Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
The health of an ever-ageing population is one of the major problems facing our society. In particular, the chance of developing a psychiatric illness requiring hospital admission increases so rapidly with advancing age (Registrar General, 1955) that knowledge of the prevalence of serious psychiatric illness in the elderly living in the community is essential if there is to be effective planning of the country's psychiatric services. It is also important to know what social and other health factors are associated with such illness. This study is a contribution to such knowledge.
Pamela Parsons (1965) studied this question.