Causes and Predictors of Hospital-Death among Elderly Patients in Western Iran; a Hospital-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction: Identifying the death reasons amongst elderly, may help prioritizing the research projects and interventions.

Objective: This study purpose was to determine the death pattern and causes, and also its likely associated factors, in a mega hospital in western Iran.

Method: This retrospective cross-sectional study, conducted on elderly died from April 2011 to March 2016, in Imam Reza hospital in Kermanshah, Iran. The data were collected about the demographic characteristics, medical information, and the main death causes. The causes-of-death was classified adopting the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). The relationships between outcome and predicting variables were assessed by using Chi-square and Tukey's test in SPSS.

Results: Totally, 2415 died elderly were registered during the study period. The participants mean age at the time of their death was 75.35±9.15 years old. The diseases of circulatory system (dominancy of stroke), infectious diseases (leading by septicaemia and septic shock, respectively), and respiratory system diseases were the most common death causes, respectively. Age was the most important associated factor for the all-cause mortality related to the cardiovascular diseases (p=0.001).

Conclusion: The majority of deaths were the premature, which requires paying more attention. Although, cardiovascular diseases were the leading death causes and that is predictable, but the fatality of infectious diseases is still causing concerns.