Clinicians should not Mistake pure aging for disease (eg, slow information retrieval is not dementia) Mistake disease for pure aging (eg, ascribe debilitating arthritis, tremor, or dementia to old age) Ignore the increased risk of adverse drug effects on weak-link systems stressed by illness Forget that older adults often have multiple underlying disorders (eg, hypertension, diabetes, atherosclerosis) that accelerate the potential for harm In addition, clinicians should be alert for diseases and problems that are much more common among older adults (eg, diastolic heart failure, Alzheimer disease, incontinence, atrial fibrillation).