Prevalence of skin disease among nursing home patients in southern Taiwan

Background Continuing advances in medical care and nutrition have prolonged the lifespan and expanded the elderly demographic world‐wide. Despite increasing elderly populations within Taiwanese nursing homes, there has been a lack of dermatologic surveys, and the prevalence of skin conditions within...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of dermatology 2002-11, Vol.41 (11), p.754-759
Main Authors: Derek Richard, Smith, Hamm-Ming, Sheu, Fu-Sen, Hsieh, Yung-Ling, Lee, Suh-Jen, Chang, Yueliang Leon, Guo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biological and medical sciences
Dermatology
Female
Homes for the Aged
Humans
Logistic Models
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Nursing Homes
Odds Ratio
Prevalence
Regression Analysis
Risk Factors
Skin Diseases - epidemiology
Skin involvement in other diseases. Miscellaneous. General aspects
Taiwan - epidemiology
Tropical medicine
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Summary:Background Continuing advances in medical care and nutrition have prolonged the lifespan and expanded the elderly demographic world‐wide. Despite increasing elderly populations within Taiwanese nursing homes, there has been a lack of dermatologic surveys, and the prevalence of skin conditions within this group is unknown. Methods To establish the prevalence of skin disease within nursing homes in southern Taiwan, we undertook a dermatologic and epidemiologic investigation of 398 patients in Tainan City, southern Taiwan, between November 1999 and February 2000. Results This study revealed that more than half of all nursing home patients suffered from fungus (61.6%) and xerosis (58.3%), while other pruritic skin diseases, such as dermatitis and scabies, were less prevalent at 7.3% and 3.3%, respectively. Risk factors for fungal infection included bedridden status (risk ratio (RR), 1.2; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1–1.4) and male gender (RR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.0–1.3). Xerosis was statistically correlated with an age range of 80–90 years (RR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.0–1.4) when compared to other age ranges. Current scabies diagnosis was strongly associated with a previous history of scabies (RR, 8.9; 95% CI, 1.7–21.1). Conclusions Our study provides clinically relevant data regarding the prevalence of skin diseases in institutionalized Taiwanese patients for the first time. The results suggest that scabies persists within some nursing homes despite treatment, and that some patients remain undiagnosed. The dermatologic needs of these Taiwanese patients are not currently being satisfied.
ISSN:0011-9059
1365-4632
DOI:10.1046/j.1365-4362.2002.01425.x