BACKGROUNDPneumonia has become the predominant cause of death for the elderly. It is critical to determine the status of oropharyngeal pathogen colonization in the elderly when treating pneumonia. To explore the efficient approaches to treat age-related pneumonia, we determined the status of oropharyngeal pathogenic colonization in the elderly community.

METHODSThroat swab cultures were used to isolate oropharyngeal pathogens from 706 residents older than 65 years living in the community of Shenyang City. Characteristics of bacterial strains were sorted and identified using drug sensitivity tests.

RESULTSResults of bacterial identification showed that 265 out of 706 samples were positive, thereby exhibiting a 37.5% positive rate. There were 290 bacterial strains isolated from the elderly community in total, of which 248 strains were gram-negative bacilli (GNB) and 42 strains were gram-positive cocci (GNC), accounting for 85.5% and 14.5%, respectively. There were 158 Klebsiella pneumoniae strains, representing 54.4% of the all GNB.

CONCLUSIONThe rate of oropharyngeal GNB colonization in the elderly community increases and Klebsiella pneumoniae is the most common strain.