Association and Prevalence Between Geriatric Syndrome and Chronic Diseases in Nonagenarians: a Single-center Observation

OBJECTİVE The world population is getting older. The most common condition in the aging population is comorbidity, which is a combination of more than one chronic disease or condition. Contrary to the traditional view that specific symptoms are characteristic of a single disease, the coexistence of multiple diseases and other age-related conditions in elderly individuals leads to what is defined as geriatric syndromes. Geriatric syndromes are quite common in the elderly population and are associated with poor quality of life, adverse health status, and increased cost. Physicians who more frequently care and manage patients with comorbid diseases and geriatric syndrome can cope better with these conditions when faced with them. It is known that the frequency of comorbidity and geriatric syndrome increases especially in the elderly. However, in the oldest age group, which is showing the fastest increase in population, these rates are not clearly known. The aim of this study is to shed light on the management of elderly patients by identifying geriatric syndromes and comorbidity prevalence, as well as chronic diseases and common geriatric syndromes, in patients 90 years of age and older who applied to the geriatric outpatient clinic.

METHOD Data of patients 90 years and older who applied to the geriatric outpatient clinic between November 2016 and January 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The drugs used by the patients with their demographic characteristics such as age, gender, chronic diseases and geriatric syndromes were gathered. The drugs used were also obtained from the hospital-registered files and through the E-Pulse health system. Diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HT), cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cerebrovascular occlusion (CVO), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic kidney disease (CKD) were recorded as chronic diseases. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), dementia, delirium, depression, fall, incontinence, malnutrition, sleep disorders, polypharmacy, and fall were recorded as geriatric syndrome. The modified Charlson comorbidity index was used to calculate the comorbidity index.