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 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.
Smith
Derek Richard
DR
Faculty of Sciences, The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia.
Sheu
Hamm-Ming
HM
Hsieh
Fu-Sen
FS
Lee
Yung-Ling
YL
Chang
Suh-Jen
SJ
Guo
Yueliang Leon
YL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology