Retrospective Analysis Of 506 Hospitalized Elderly Patients With Skin Disease

Objective: to investigate the pattern of distribution geriatric dermatoses and its clinical characteristic for elderly who hospitalized at dermatology and venereology department of Chongqing First Affiliated Hospital from January 2005 to October 2007.Methods: All elderly patients 60 years old or older that admitted at dermatology and venereology department of Chongqing First Affiliated Hospital from January 2005 to October 2007 were included in the study. A retrospective study was performed of 506 elderly patients. Distribution of disease was compared to middle adulthood patients from 45 to 59 years of age, and the clinical characteristics were analyzed. Results were analyzed with SAS 8.2 statistical software by using Pearson chi-square and multiple logistic regression tests. Finding was considered statistically significant if the P value < 0.05.Results: A total of 506 elderly patients, which constituted 24.83% of the total patients admitted to dermatology and venereology department of Chongqing First Affiliated Hospital for 3 years were studied. The male to female ratio was 1.56:1. The most common geriatric skin diseases that cause elderly to be hospitalized were herpes zoster (23.52%), followed by eczema (11.86%), nonspecific dermatitis (10.47%), drug eruption (7.91%) and psoriasis (4.35%). The proportion of common diseases in the elderly patients was compared with those middle adulthood patients, which showed statistically significant increased risk of herpes zoster (1.9 fold), bullous pemphigoid (5 fold) and pruritus (3.4 fold) in the elderly. In the elderly, eczema and psoriaris seems to be more dominant in male, whereas herpes zoster, urticaria and dermatomyositis were more common in female. There are 31.62% elderly patients that reported to have 1 underlying disease and 32.21% have at least 2 or more underlying diseases. The most frequent accompanying underlying diseases found were hypertension (30.24%); followed by diabetes mellitus (14.62%); lung disorder (13.24%); and cerebrovascular disease (4.74%). 15.02% of elderly patients that used steroid have developed at least 1 complications of steroid therapy and there is correlation between dosage and side effects.Conclusions: This study showed that skin diseases in elderly were not uncommon and the pattern of distribution skin diseases had many similarities to previous studies conducted in China. There were variations in the frequency of skin diseases depending on age and gender. More attention should be put on the frequent complications of medical treatments in the elderly and dose adjustment in this group of patients was warranted.