Skin Disease Profile in Geriatric Inpatients at a Tertiary Referral Hospital

Abstract

Background: Elderly people are susceptible to various skin diseases. To monitor disease trends in the geriatric population, epidemiologic data on skin diseases are essential. However, studies on skin diseases in geriatric patients in Indonesia, particularly those who are hospitalised, are limited. Therefore, this retrospective study aims to determine the skin disease profile in geriatric patients at a tertiary referral hospital in Indonesia.

Methods: The subjects were all geriatric inpatients who were consulted at the Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo National General Hospital between 2017 and 2019. The patients were analysed according to sex, age and comorbidities. They were divided into 15 groups according to the diseases. Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was used to compare categorical variables.

Results: The most common skin diseases were infections (35.8%), dermatitis (21.8%), ulcers (12.8%), age-related skin changes (8.4%) and vascular diseases (5.3%). Dermatitis was significantly more common in males (P < 0.05), whereas infections were significantly more common in females (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Consistent with previous studies, our inpatient data showed that infections were significantly more common in females, whereas dermatitis was significantly more common in males. The data collected may contribute to epidemiologic data on skin diseases in the geriatric population.

Keywords: dermatitis; geriatric; infection; skin disease.