Introduction

Geriatric Essentials

• The overall result of age-related structural changes is an increase in skin dryness, roughness, wrinkling, and laxity, and a decrease in skin elasticity.
• The overall result of age-related functional changes is a decline in skin barrier function, mechanical protection, sensory perception, wound healing, immunologic responsiveness, thermoregulation, and vitamin D production.

Aging leads to many changes in the skin, hair, and nails. These changes can be broadly categorized as either age-related or photoaging. Age-related changes are presumed to be due to age alone, whereas photoaging is due to chronic exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation superimposed on aging itself. Popular notions of "old skin" often correspond more closely to photoaging than to aging itself, and dramatic differences between aged skin protected from UV light and younger unprotected skin are evident to patients and clinicians alike. Other factors that affect the skin include smoking, which accelerates wrinkle development, and disease, most notably connective tissue disorders.

This topic was last updated March 2006.