Clinical Study on Dermatologic Disease of the Elderly

Park, Byung Cheol; Choe, Yoon Seok; Kim, Do Won; Lee, Weon Ju; Lee, Seok Jong; Na, Gun Yoen

Abstract

BACKGROUND
With the advance of socioeconomy and medical sciences, geriatric health care has become a world wide concern and disease of the skin is no exception.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology, past history and the prevalence of various skin disorders of the elderly.
METHODS
In this trial, a total of 1082 new patients older than 65 years, who visited the Department of Dermatology, Kyungpook National University Hospital in Daegu, Korea in the last 3 years (2002~2004), were selected. The data was studied on the basis of a retrospective survey of hospital records.
RESULTS
Of total patients who were seen at the dermatologic outpatient department, 10.1% were 65 years and older. The male to female ratio was 1 to 1.01. The patients between 65 and 74 years old compromised the majority (72.8%), and the patients older than 85 years old were 4.1%. They visited hospital most frequently in summer. Of the common complaints recorded, pruritic rash was the most frequent. The commonly diagnosed disorders were herpes zoster followed by senile pruritus, tinea/onychomycosis, and seborrheic dermatitis in decreasing order. The most common dermatologic disease was hespes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia for all three age groups : 65~74 years old, 75~84 years old, and over 85 years old. A total of 901 patients, which constituted 83.3% of the total patients, had at least more than one underlying disease, of which cardiovascular disease was the most common.
CONCLUSION
This study is expected to be of help to understand the characteristics and the distribution of dermatologic diseases in the elderly.