Abstract
Background: Little is known regarding the impact of influenza on functional status. We report an ongoing body of work to assess functional decline following influenza among older patients in nursing home and hospital settings. Methods: In nursing homes, a case-comparison design was used. One hundred and sixteen residents who developed influenza-like illness (ILI) during laboratory confirmed outbreaks of influenza A/H3N2 served as cases; 127 residents without ILI served as the comparison subjects. Measures of functional status before outbreak and 4 months after outbreak were collected from medical records. Matched pairs analyses were conducted to ascertain changes in measures of functional status. Results: Among case and comparison subjects, 25% and 16%, respectively, experienced decline in at least one major function (p=0.04) including bathing, dressing and mobility for a net 9% or 1 patient in 10 with decline attributable to influenza. Conclusion: Decline in major physical functions constitutes an important new and costly measure of impact of influenza on the frail elderly. A comparison study of functional decline among elders hospitalized with pneumonia during influenza season, involving 300 cases and 300 controls, is in the planning stages.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 631-635 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | International Congress Series |
| Volume | 1219 |
| Issue number | C |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 2001 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Frail older persons
- Functional status
- Influenza
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine