Long-term follow- up of patients aged 75 years and older admitted to an acute care hospital in Israel

Certain biomedical and psychosocial factors may be important in predicting short-term and long-term outcomes in elderly inpatients in an acute care hospital. We prospectively studied all patients aged 75 years and older who were admitted to an acute inpatient geriatrics unit between June, 1984 and May, 1985, and we followed them for 5 years. Patients were followed by phone and/or the outpatient ambulatory service; follow-up visits occurred at 4 to 6 weeks following discharge and annually thereafter. After 5 years, 21% of the patients were alive. Apparently, age and gender were the major parameters associated with prognosis. Functional status and nutritional state (body weight, serum albumin) were also important prognostic factors. Of the geriatric syndromes, urinary incontinence seemed to be most strongly associated with a poor outcome, followed by falls and confusion. Iatrogenic conditions apparently had no such association. These findings suggest that certain demographic and clinical factors may be useful prognosticators for elderly hospitalized patients. (Aging 3:279–285, 1991)