A 70-year-old client is admitted with acute pancreatitis. the nurse understands that the mortality rate associated with acute pancreatitis increases with advanced age and attributes this to which gerontologic consideration associated with the pancreas?

The nurse understands that it attributes to the decrease in the physiological function of major organs.

Acute pancreatitis affects people of all ages, but the mortality rate associated with acute pancreatitis increases with advancing age. The pattern of complications changes with age. Younger patients tend to develop local complications; the incidence of multiple organ failure increases with age; possibly as a result of progressive decreases in physiologic function of major organs with increasing age.