A Clinical Study of Skin Diseases in Elderly Patients(IV)

Shin, Bong Ju; Choe, Seong Wook; Seo, Seong Jun; Hong, Chang Kwun

Abstract

BACKGROUND: With the advance of socioeconomy and medical science, the population of the aged has been significantly increased. Therefore it needs to be studied the fundamental epidemiologic survey of dermatologic disease in the elderly.
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of common dermatoses in the elderly and to compare these to previous studies. METHOD: 1,916 out-patients over 65 years old who had visited the Department of Dermatology, University Hospital and Yongsan Hospital, College of Medicine, Chung Ang University from January, 1996 to December, 2001 were analyzed retrospectively.
RESULTS
1. The incidence of aged group over 65 years old to total number of out-patients(24,723) was 7.7%(1,916 cases). 2. The ratio of male to female was 1.06 : 1(986:930). 3. The frequent skin diseases were herpes zoster(12.0%), benign tumor(9.0%), pruritus(8.9%), onychomycosis/tinea pedis(7.7%), contact dermatitis(7.2%), seborrheic dermatitis(5.4%). 4. Eczema was the most common disease group which revealed 18.5%. The second most frequent group was viral infection(15.3%), followed by fungal infection(12.7%), tumor(12.0%), urticaria, drug eruption and erythema(9.4%), pruritus(8.9%), papulosquamous disease(2.8%) and bacterial infection(2.6%). 5. The most common disease in each disease group were as follows : contact dermatitis in eczema, herpes zoster in viral infection, onychomycosis and tinea pedis in fungal infection, urticaria in urticaria, drug eruption and erythema group, generalized pruritus in pruritus group, psoriasis in papulosquamous disease and folliculitis in bacterial infection, respectively. 6. Among 235 cases of skin tumor, 175 cases(74.5%) were benign and the remaining 60 cases(25.5%) were premalignant or malignant. The frequency of benign tumor was in order of seborrheic keratosis, epidermal cyst, skin tag and lipoma, respectively. In malignancy, there were basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and cutaneous metastatic carcinoma.
CONCLUSION
Compared to previous studies, tumor and pruritus showed a increasing tendency but eczema a decreasing tendency.