ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION A. Demographics of Trauma in the Elderly Trauma in the elderly is a growing problem due to the increase in life span. During the twentieth century, the number of people in the United States under the age of 65 tripled. At the same time, the number of people 65 and over jumped by a factor of 11 [1]! The Census Bureau predicts that the elderly population will more than double between now and the year 2050, to a total of 80 million. The rate of death from trauma in the elderly group is high. Although the death rate from unintentional injury per 100,000 persons is 35.4 for all ages combined, it rises to 90.3 for persons older than 65 years of age [2].
