Even though Gerontology and Geriatrics deals with ageing, both are entirely different subjects of study. Gerontology is concerned with the study of the communal, psychosomatic and biological facets of ageing. However, Geriatrics is a sub division of internal medicine that is all about the health care of aged people.

Gerontology courses and career opportunities

Gerontology is an enormous field of study, which encompasses so many sub divisions. Aspirants can pursue either graduate or postgraduate programs in their interesting subjects among the different areas of study in Gerontology. Biogerontology, Geroscience, Medical gerontology, Social gerontology – all come under Gerontology. Various Universities throughout the world offer various research programs also in the respective fields. Those who pursue the PhD or M.Phil programs can work as research analysts practicing research work in ageing. A graduation in the respective fields is a pre-requisite for the entry-level jobs. Postgraduates can expect excellent scale of pays entering in to career.

Geriatrics courses and career opportunities

There are numerous coursers in Geriatrics that an aspirant can pursue. There are mainly three branches in Geriatrics mainly, medical, surgical and further subspecialties. Some of the courses in medical geriatrics that an aspirant can choose for study are Geriatric nephrology, Geriatric Rehabilitation, Cardio geriatrics and Geriatric dentistry. Likewise Geriatric trauma, Geriatric urology, Geriatric otolaryngology all comes within surgical geriatrics. Various Universities and institutes offer the diverse courses in the relevant fields. In addition to the Bachelors’ and Masters’ courses in the concerned areas, aspirants can pursue the research programs also. Those who wish to become research scientists in the concerned fields need to have completed the research programs in Geriatrics. They can seek out for employments in health care, medical institutes, laboratories and so on.

Key differentiators between Gerontology and Geriatrics

• Gerontology deals with the entire ageing process in individuals whereas Geriatrics concentrates only the ageing process of older adults.
• Gerontology is a multidisciplinary field of study where as Geriatrics is a part of the internal medicine.

The field of study, techniques and methodologies involved and the career prospects all differ for both Gerontology and Geriatrics. The former helps to predict the life expectancy of a society whereas the latter helps to improve and increase the life expectancy of older people by promoting their health conditions by providing them various treatments and care.