Introduction:
Ageing of the human population is one of the most important demographic processes observed in many countries worldwide, including Poland. In the past, the individuals who were physically and mentally the strongest lived a long life; however, at present, old age is more frequently attained by those who took good care of their health in earlier years of life, and those who were assisted by medicine. The presented study is devoted to the latter population group. Considering the ageing of society, there increases the demand for medical and nursing services. Therefore, the objective of the study is the presentation of the health problems with which the elderly in Poland and the European Union countries struggle. Due to the development of civilization, humans live by a half longer than at the beginning of the 20th century, and all the characteristics pertaining to the ageing of society published by a number of institutions dealing with statistics, such as Eurostat and the Main Statistical Office, indicate that this tendency will maintain itself for at least several more decades, bringing about a number of implications both for Europe and Poland. In 2010 the world population of people aged 60 and over reached 1 billion, which constitutes about 1/6 of the total population. Accelerated ageing of society poses many challenges for the organizers of health care, the education system, and physicians in the areas of education, prevention and treatment of the geriatric Polish population. The advancing process of demographic ageing is therefore an important problem for the Polish sector of health care.