Global burden of skin disease in the elderly: a grand challenge to skin health.

Skin diseases, as estimated in the global burden of disease study 2010, are a significant health problem in all global regions and many of those analyzed in this study show an increasing burden over recent years, extending into old age. Some of the conditions which have the highest impact on the elderly include non-melanoma skin cancer and skin ulceration, but bacterial skin infection, fungal disease or pruritus are all significant problems. With predicted changes in demography and a higher proportion of individuals above the age of 80 in the coming years concentrating new resources on gathering better data and devising preventative, therapeutic and palliative strategies is a priority.