Clinical study on dermatologic disease of the elderly

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.