Journal article
ANTIBIOTIC AGENTS IN THE ELDERLY
Infectious disease clinics of North America, v 14(2), pp 357-369
2000
PMID: 10829260
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
In the year 2000, for the first time in the United States, people older than 60 years outnumber children aged 14 years and younger. By the year 2050, the number of Americans older than 65 years of age will double to reach nearly 80 million.
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In spite of the many advances that have occurred in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases, infections still cause 30% of deaths in the elderly and are the most frequent cause of hospitalization in this population.
Managing infections in the elderly is a challenge. Diagnosis of infections can be problematic, because elderly patients frequently lack classic signs and symptoms of infection such as fever and leukocytosis. When infection occurs, the elderly often present with unusual symptoms such as poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, and changes in mental status. Physical findings and laboratory results are often difficult to interpret as many of the elderly have baseline pulmonary and urinary tract abnormalities (e.g., rales, bacteriuria, pyuria). Therapy is problematic because of the increased potential for toxicity of antimicrobial agents in the elderly.
The following sections discuss some of the important physiologic changes, drug-drug interactions, compliance issues, and reasons for increased side effects that affect use of antimicrobial agents in the elderly. There is also a review of the most frequently encountered bacterial infections in the elderly and recommendations for therapy.
Although less than 10% of the entire population older than the age of 65 years resides in long-term care facilities (LTCF),
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the challenges of managing infections in this population are great. Therefore, special comments about patients in LTCF are incorporated into the discussion of frequently encountered infections in the elderly.
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Details
- Title
- ANTIBIOTIC AGENTS IN THE ELDERLY
- Creators
- Malini Stalam - Infectious Disease Unit, the Southeastern Veterans Center, Spring City, Pennsylvania (MS)Donald Kaye - Department of Medicine, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (DK)
- Publication Details
- Infectious disease clinics of North America, v 14(2), pp 357-369
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Medicine (Graduate)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000087196900007
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-0034025995
- Other Identifier
- 991019169707904721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases