[Epidemiologic analyses of elderly patients in an Internal Medicine department].
OBJECTIVE
To study the characteristics of the entered patients in an Internal Medicine department.


METHODS
Descriptive and observational study with admissions elder than 65 years old in an Internal Medicine Department during the year 2002. The variables analyzed were: age, sex, intake date, discharge date, days of hospital stay, chronic disease previous, reason for admission (guide symptom), deceased and diagnosis at discharge. The statistical analysis was performed with measures of central tendency and of standard deviation, Chi-squared Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon.


RESULTS
770 patients were accepted for the study. The distribution in sex is similar, although the women show greater median age. The most frequent chronic disease was ischemic hypertensive heart disease (25.7%) and the 64.9% of the patients have some cardiovascular risk factor. The men show more cardiovascular risk factor and more chronic disease (p < 0.01). The most frequent was dyspnea (42.7%). The most frequent diagnosis was cardiac failure (20.6%). 16.6% of the patients died in the hospital, and the most frequent diagnosis was respiratory tract infection (49.5%).


CONCLUSIONS
The most frequent pathologies are the cardiopulmonary chronic disease of developed countries. The primary and secondary prevention and an improvement of chronic cardiopulmonary disease would be an effective way of cost control in these disease.
Cinza Sanjurjo
S
S
Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Clinico Universitario, 15701 Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña. sergiocinza@mundo-r.com
Cabarcos Ortiz de Barrón
A
A
Nieto Pol
E
E
Lorenzo Zúñiga
V
V
D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013030:Spain