[Age at the time of gastrostomy placement as a prognostic factor in long-term hospitalized patients]

To evaluate the influence of age at the time of gastrostomy placement as a prognostic factor and examine the survival rate in long-term hospitalized patients with gastrostomy.

The subjects were 408 inpatients with gastrostomy admitted to our hospital between December 2005 and March 2012. All inpatients, including the present subjects, received oral care in the form of attendant care by nurses or caregivers. First, the subjects were divided into two groups according to sex. Second, the subjects were divided into four groups according to the age at the time of gastrostomy placement: the sixties group (60-69 years), seventies group (70-79 years), eighties group (80-89 years), and nineties group (90-99 years). Each survival curve was drawn using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the log-rank tests were used for statistical analysis. The Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios.

The overall survival rates at one year and five years after gastrostomy placement were 75.4% and 23.2%, respectively. The median survival period was 32.2 months. A significantly better prognosis was observed in women than in men; the age-adjusted hazard ratio was 1.748 (95% CI, 1.364-2.242) for men. The eighties and nineties groups exhibited significantly poorer prognoses than that of the sixties group (p<0.008); the sex-adjusted hazard ratios were 2.173 (95% CI, 1.341-3.521) and 3.071 (95% CI, 1.627-5.797), respectively.

These results suggest that oral care, even after gastrostomy placement, can improve the prognosis in patients with gastrostomy. Physicians should therefore be cautious when recommending gastrostomy placement for patients aged>80 years.