Boston ? Frail, elderly patients do better and feel better with specialized geriatric care than they do with regular treatment, but they do not live any longer, according to the biggest such study yet.

Geriatric specialists hope the study by the Veterans Affairs Department will give a boost to their relatively new, understaffed field of care.

Patients who got specialized geriatric care reported significantly less pain and far more improvement in their mental health  at no greater cost  a year after leaving the hospital.

The patients were treated by geriatric teams that included a geriatrician, social worker and nurse. A geriatrician is a doctor trained to focus on the common conditions and special needs of the elderly.

“I think it’s extremely encouraging,” said Dr. James Fanale, a geriatrician in Worcester, Mass., and board chairman of the American Geriatrics Society. “This study demonstrates there clearly is benefit.”

The study was reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers picked 1,388 patients age 65 and older who were sick at one of 11 veterans hospitals. They were randomly split into groups for geriatric or regular treatment, while they were in the hospital and after their release.

By the time of release from the hospital, the group treated by inpatient geriatric teams showed a range of advantages in physical and basic living capabilities. After one year, however, those advantages evaporated, except in the categories of pain and mental health.

Geriatric treatment also failed to help patients live longer.

Two decades ago, there was little special training in geriatrics. Today, with an expanding percentage of elderly in the population, there are more than 9,500 certified geriatricians, and the American Geriatrics Society predicts the need at nearly four times more by the year 2030.

The required extra year of training and low Medicare reimbursements are among the field’s drawbacks.

A 1984 veterans study found a distinct survival advantage for patients with geriatric care. Specialists said the latest study may show no such comparative benefit because regular care has improved under the influence of the geriatrics movement.

However, study leader Dr. Harvey Jay Cohen of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, N.C., predicted the findings will bolster geriatrics programs because they show modest benefits at no increased cost.

“Many older people would much rather have a good quality of life than extend life if quality of life weren’t going to be improved,” he added.