TEHRAN— The first geriatrics specialty clinic in Iran will be inaugurated by the end of the current Iranian calendar month (Feb. 19) in Semnan province, Semnan University of Medical Sciences chancellor has said.

Geriatric medicine clinic looks after people who have conditions associated with aging. These could be memory loss, mobility problems and falls, bowel or bladder difficulties, poor nutrition or unexplained weight loss, as well as other challenges coping with multiple illnesses and medications.

This is the first time that a geriatrics specialty clinic will be set up in the country, ISNA news agency quoted Navid Danaei as saying on Monday. 

He also said an Iranian traditional medicine clinic will come on stream in the province. 

With regard to the growing population of the older persons in the country and increased life expectancy setting up such specialty clinics is essential, Danaei explained. 

According to the Statistical Center of Iran Iranians’ average life expectancy has risen to 74 years (72.5 years for males and 75.5 years for females). 

Census reports of 2016 indicate that the number of persons, aged 60 years or older, has increased by 1.5-fold over the past decade (2006-2016) in Iran. In 2006, some 5.1 million people were 60 or older, but the number rose to 6.1 million in 2011 and to 7.4 million in 2016. Currently, the country’s total population stands at about 80 million, of which some 9.3 percent is 60 or older.

In September 2018, Shahla Kazemipour, an Iranian demography expert, predicted that by the year 2050 older persons will make up 20 percent of the country’s population.

“Older persons need special care and the clinic will not only provide the senior citizens with medical services but also rehabilitation services as well,” he added. 

Examples of aging-associated diseases are cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis, dementia, cataract, osteoporosis, diabetes, hypertension and Alzheimer's disease. The incidence of all of these diseases increases rapidly with aging, disabled-world.com wrote. 

Some consequences of aging are age-related changes in vision, hearing, muscular strength, bone strength, immunity, and nerve function.

Elsewher in his remarks he said that public are interested in Iranian traditional medicine and using herbal medicine to treat their diseases, so that the Iranian traditional medicine clinic will be inaugurated in an attempt to use such methods with scientific methods. 

A traditional drugstore offering herbal medicine will be set up in the clinic as well, he added.

The clinic will stop misuse of herbal remedies and traditional medicine which could have negative and adverse side effects, he concluded. 

MQ/MG