Analysis of spirometry results in hospitalized patients aged over 65 years

What is it about?

Introduction and objective: The growing population of the elderly, as well as the occurrence of coexisting diseases and polypharmacy are the reason why diseases of patients aged ≥ 65 years belong to the major issues of the contemporary medicine. Among the most frequent diseases of the elderly there are respiratory system diseases. They are difficult to diagnose because of the patient group specificity, which is the reason for increased mortality among seniors, caused by underdiagnosis. Spirometry turns out an important tool in diagnosing respiratory system diseases. The study objective was to assess the factors influencing spirometry results in hospitalized patients aged ≥ 65 years with respiratory system disorders. Material and methods: In the research, 217 (100%) patients were analyzed aged ≥ 65 years staying at the Regional Medical Center of the Jelenia Góra Valley Hospital in Poland who underwent spirometry. In the statistical analysis, the Statistica 9.1 program, the t-test, the Shapiro-Wilk test, the ANOVA test, and the Scheffe test were applied. The majority of the patients were men (n = 119), with the mean age of 70.1 years, and the mean BMI of 26.6 kg/m2. Most respondents were on a normal diet (70.5%) and declared being non-smokers (53.9%). Results: The majority of the patients (59.4%) were treated in hospital. The most frequent diagnosis was malignant neoplasm (18%). The study showed a statistically significant dependence between the FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC parameters and the time of hospitalization, as well as between the FVC, FEV1 parameters and the patients’ age. Conclusions: The respondents’ sex and the established diagnosis statistically significantly influenced the FVC index result. The diet influenced the FEV1/FVC parameter result. Key words: the elderly, spirometry, respiratory system diseases

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Why is it important?

It is important because respiratory diseases mainly affect the elderly.