Gerontology is the study of the social

Social

The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

, psychological

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 and biological

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

 aspects of aging

Ageing

Ageing or aging is the accumulation of changes in a person over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline...

. It is distinguished from geriatrics

Geriatrics

Geriatrics is a sub-specialty of internal medicine and family medicine that focuses on health care of elderly people. It aims to promote health by preventing and treating diseases and disabilities in older adults. There is no set age at which patients may be under the care of a geriatrician, or...

, which is the branch of medicine that studies the diseases of the elderly.

Gerontology encompasses the following:

• studying physical, mental, and social changes in people as they age
• investigating the aging(ageing), process itself (biogerontology)
• investigating the interface of normal ageing and age-related disease (geroscience)
• investigating the effects of an ageing population
  Population ageing
  Population ageing or population aging occurs when the median age of a country or region rises. This happens because of rising life expectancy or declining birth rates. Excepting 18 countries termed 'demographic outliers' by the UN) this process is taking place in every country and region across...
  
   on society
• applying this knowledge to policies and programs, including the macroscopic (for example government planning) and microscopic (for example running a nursing home) perspectives.

The multidisciplinary nature of gerontology means that there are a number of sub-fields, as well as associated fields such as psychology and sociology that overlap with gerontology.

The field of gerontology is relatively new, and as such often lacks structural and institutional support.