Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 May 30;7(1):8.
doi: 10.1186/1939-4551-7-8. eCollection 2014.

Asthma in the elderly: what we know and what we have yet to know

Anahí Yáñez  1 , Sang-Hoen Cho  2 , Joan B Soriano  3 , Lanny J Rosenwasser  4 , Gustavo J Rodrigo  5 , Klaus F Rabe  6 , Stephen Peters  7 , Akio Niimi  8 , Dennis K Ledford  9 , Rohit Katial  10 , Leonardo M Fabbri  11 , Juan C Celedón  12 , Giorgio Walter Canonica  13 , Paula Busse  14 , Louis-Phillippe Boulet  15 , Carlos E Baena-Cagnani  16 , Qutayba Hamid  17 , Claus Bachert  18 , Ruby Pawankar  19 , Stephen T Holgate  20
Affiliations
Review

Asthma in the elderly: what we know and what we have yet to know

Anahí Yáñez et al. World Allergy Organ J. .

Abstract

In the past, asthma was considered mainly as a childhood disease. However, asthma is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly nowadays. In addition, the burden of asthma is more significant in the elderly than in their younger counterparts, particularly with regard to mortality, hospitalization, medical costs or health-related quality of life. Nevertheless, asthma in the elderly is still been underdiagnosed and undertreated. Therefore, it is an imperative task to recognize our current challenges and to set future directions. This project aims to review the current literature and identify unmet needs in the fields of research and practice for asthma in the elderly. This will enable us to find new research directions, propose new therapeutic strategies, and ultimately improve outcomes for elderly people with asthma. There are data to suggest that asthma in older adults is phenotypically different from young patients, with potential impact on the diagnosis, assessment and management in this population. The diagnosis of AIE in older populations relies on the same clinical findings and diagnostic tests used in younger populations, but the interpretation of the clinical data is more difficult. The challenge today is to encourage new research in AIE but to use the existing knowledge we have to make the diagnosis of AIE, educate the patient, develop a therapeutic approach to control the disease, and ultimately provide a better quality of life to our elderly patients.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
World Population Growth trends from 1950 and projected to 2050.
Figure 2
Figure 2
World Population age-and gender-structure in 1956, 2006 and projected to 2050.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kinsella K, He W. An aging world: 2008 (International Population Reports) Washington, DC: National Institute on Aging, Census Bureau; 2009.
    1. Song W-J, Kim S-H, Lim S, Park Y-J, Kim M-H, Lee S-M, Lee S-B, Kim K-W, Jang H-C, Cho SH. Association between obesity and asthma in the elderly population: potential roles of abdominal subcutaneous adiposity and sarcopenia. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2012;7(4):243–248. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2012.07.017. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kim YK, Kim SH, Tak YJ, Jee YK, Lee BJ, Park HW, Jung JW, Bahn JW, Chang YS, Choi DC. High prevalence of current asthma and active smoking effect among the elderly. Clin Exp Allergy. 2002;7:1706–1712. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2222.2002.01524.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Viegi G, Pedreschi M, Baldacci S, Chiaffi L, Pistelli F, Modena P, Vellutini M, Di Pede F, Carrozzi L. Prevalence rates of respiratory symptoms and diseases in general population samples of North and Central Italy. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 1999;7:1034–1042. - PubMed
    1. Parameswaran K, Hildreth AJ, Chadha D, Keaney NP, Taylor IK, Bansal SK. Asthma in the elderly: underperceived, underdiagnosed and undertreated; a community survey. Respir Med. 1998;7:573–577. doi: 10.1016/S0954-6111(98)90311-0. - DOI - PubMed