title: Influence of performance status on the risk and outcome of nosocomial pneumonia in the elderly admitted to an open medical ward.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  nosocomial pneumonia (NP) has been observed to complicate the course of management of some elderly patients in medical wards and this impacts negatively on the outcome of care of this group of patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  to determine the relationship of pre-treatment performance status (PTPS) on the risk and outcome of NP in elderly patients admitted to an open medical ward.
  
  
  METHODS
  a prospective clinical surveillance of all elderly patients admitted to the medical wards of a University Teaching Hospital was carried out over a period of nine years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  in the nine-year period 531 patients; aged 65 to 107 years were seen, 184(34.7%) of whom developed NP. Eleven (21%) patients had PTPS of 75% or more (i.e. able to care for selves without assistance), one (0.2%) of whom developed NP. Seventy-eight (14.7%) patients had PTPS of 51-74% (i.e. required occasional assistance for routine care); 13(2.4%) of whom also developed NP. Of the 217 (40.9%) patients who had PTPS of 26-50% (i.e. requiring considerable assistance for self care), 73(13.7%) of them had NP while 97 (18.3%) out of 225 patients with PTPS below 25% (i.e. completely dependent on others for routine care) developed nosocomial pneumonia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  a low performance status score increases the risk of development of NP in the elderly and this risk is influenced by type of treatment-related interventions a patient has on admission.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, College of Health Science, University of Ilorin, IIlorin. salkaz2000@yahoo.com
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Salami
authors.forename: O O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Desalu
authors.forename: P O
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Adeoye
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Akanbi Ii
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Oguntoyinbo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fadeyi
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017567:Karnofsky Performance Status; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012124:Respiratory Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012306:Risk; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D016896:Treatment Outcome