Geriatric admissions in a developing country: experience from a tertiary centre in Nigeria

The aging populations in developing countries have brought a demographic and an epidemiological transition, affecting the impact of chronic diseases on the health status of the population.

To review the pattern of geriatric admissions in the medical wards of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).

Medical records of all geriatric patients aged > or = 60 years admitted in the medical wards between June 2002 and May 2006 were retrieved and reviewed retrospectively.

2736 admissions to the adult medical wards over the period were reported. Among these, 1122 (41%) were geriatric patients aged > or = 60 years. The most common geriatric illnesses were cardiovascular diseases, 622 (43.7%), infections, 268 (18.8%) and endocrine diseases, 220 (15.4%). Malignancies, renal diseases and hematological diseases were few, being responsible for 53 (3.7%) 48 (3.4%) and 35 (2.5%) of medical admissions respectively. Only 1.5% of the patients spent more than 30 days in the hospital. More than half (56.4%) of the patients spent 1-2 weeks, while 33.3% of patients spent less than a week in hospital. Of the total geriatric patients seen, 70.6% recovered and were discharged home, 26.7% died and 2.5% left against medical advice.

Elderly patients constitute a high proportion of in-patient medical admissions. Chronic diseases were responsible for the majority of morbidity and mortality in the elderly patients.