[Examination of cases in which senility was determined to be the cause of death in community medicine].

Abstract

Aim: In community medicine, there are many opportunities in which senility is noted as the cause of death. However, there are no clear criteria for diagnosing senility, and this decision is often left to the judgment of individual doctors. This study investigated the clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with senility at our hospital.

Methods: The subjects included 43 patients whose cause of death was listed as senility from among the death certificates of 282 patients prepared at our hospital. The survey items included age, sex, medical history, place of death, period from the day of explanation of the condition of senility to the date of death, BMI at the time of explanation, and blood sampling test.

Results: The mean age of patients who died due to senility was 92.2±6.5 years old. The male to female ratio was 15: 28. The most common medical history was dementia (76.7%), followed by hypertension and orthopedic disease (74.4%), respiratory disease (66.7%), and heart disease and gastrointestinal disease (60.5%). The places of death were nursing homes and private homes, and hospitals. The overall average time from presentation until death occurred was 110.2 days. There were also considerable differences depending on the case. The average BMI was 19.7±3.0, and the blood sampling results showed that total protein and serum albumin levels were lower than the reference values.

Conclusions: Although the diagnosis of senility is vague and unclear, it is important to explain such a diagnosis to the family at an appropriate time and to cooperate with multiple professionals in the treatment process.