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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Causes of death in geriatric patients
— a cross-cultural study | | Author(s) | Marcella P Klima, Ctibor Povysil, Thomas A Teasdale |
| Journal title | The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological sciences and medical sciences, vol 52A, no 4, July 1997 |
| Pages | pp M247-M253 |
| Keywords | Death ; Death rate [statistics] ; Death certificates ; Cross cultural surveys ; Czechoslovakia ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Although older people are living longer and causes of death are shifting, autopsy rate is at or near its lowest in history, and is compounded by even less interest in geriatric autopsies. In a retrospective study, the autopsy protocols of deceased patients - 440 aged 70+ from the Houston Veterans Affairs Hospital, and 321 aged 80+ in Prague, Czech Republic - were reviewed to establish a correct cause of death. Autopsy diagnosis was correlated with prosectors' description of pathological findings in the protocol. In questionable cases or discrepancies, patients' clinical charts and/or histological autopsy slides were also reviewed. The distribution of death by infections and cardiac disorders each accounted for one third of all deaths. Congestive heart failure prevailed in those aged 80+, myocardial infarction in the younger patients. Deaths due to malignancies dropped from 25% in those aged 70-79 to about 15% in older patients. Central nervous system disorders were frequent as an underlying disease, but were not common as a cause of death. Findings were similar in both series, thus supporting their accuracy. The study underlines the need for more baseline data for older people which can only be obtained by more and well-performed autopsies. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-971125219 A |
| Classmark | CW: S5: JVL: 3KA: 7AC: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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