Analysis on the death time of elderly hospitalized inpatients

VernacularTitle:老年住院患者死亡时间研究
Author: Dong XU ; Haiyan WANG ; Li LI
Keywords: Inpatient; Death time
From: Chinese Journal of Geriatrics 2017;36(8):892-894
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Objective To examine the time patterns and seasonality of death of hospitalized elderly patients and to propose proactive management measures.Methods Data were collected on 449 patients aged 60 years and over who had died between August of 2009 to August of 2013 during hospitalization at the Department of Geriatrics,Beijing Friendship Hospital,Capital Medical University.The seasonality and time patterns of the patients' deaths were analyzed retrospectively.Results Pulmonary infections(175 cases,38.97％)and malignant tumors(162 cases,36.08％)were the leading causes of death.Deaths from pulmonary infections were more frequent in spring and summer while deaths caused by malignant tumors were more frequent in summer,but the differences were not statistically significant (all P ＞ 0.05).The peak times of death in patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease were between 23:00 pm to 7:00 am (x2 =11.10 and 14.19,respectively,P＜0.05).Conclusions Pulmonary infections and malignant tumors are the main causes of death in elderly inpatients,which most often occurs during the latter half of the night in patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.