2-year survival among elderly hospitalised for acute respiratory infection versus hip fracture: a useful comparison to raise awareness. (2nd December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Guillon, Antoine; Mizgerd, Joseph P.; Grammatico-Guillon, Leslie
• Is Part Of: European respiratory review. Volume 29:Number 158(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-12-02
• Subjects: Respiratory organs -- Diseases -- Periodicals; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Respiratory organs -- Diseases; Respiratory organs -- Diseases -- Treatment; Electronic journals; Periodical; Periodicals; Periodicals; 616.2
• DOI: 10.1183/16000617.0156-2020
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0905-9180

Abstract

We read with great interest the article by Cillóniz et al . [1]. The authors nicely reported and discussed recent literature showing that pneumonia is a common lung infection that can be life-threatening, with particular concern for the elderly. Indeed, the annual incidences of hospitalisation for respiratory infections increase with age from 0.2% (for patients aged <75 years) to 1.9% (for age 80–84 years), 3.2% (for age 85–89 years) and 5.0% (for age ≥90 years) [2]. For the elderly, pneumonia has the greatest risk of death among the common causes of hospitalisation [3]. We do agree with the authors when they concluded that preventive interventions are of pivotal importance to improve outcomes and reduce the occurrence of adverse consequences [1]. However, we would like to emphasise that there is a mismatch between the high morbidity and mortality caused by respiratory infection and the low public awareness of this disease. A large pneumonia awareness survey involving over 9000 adults aged ≥50 years highlighted that most fail to accurately gauge their own pneumonia risk, leading to inadequate pneumonia prevention efforts including low uptake of existing vaccines [4]. The low public awareness of respiratory infection risk and severity in the elderly is a barrier to healthcare delivery and a driver of unhealthy ageing [5]. It is critical to raise awareness of this disease among the general public to improve the management of this largely preventable infectious disease [5]. If breaking a hip feels like a concern for the elderly, then getting pneumonia should be twice as concerning: patients hospitalised for lung infection had 3.3-fold greater in-hospital mortality and 1.8-fold increased risk of death at 2 years https://bit.ly/2Xqsrf6