Abstract

NEUMAIER, W; NEUMAIER, LFT; TURCHIELLO, CM  and  LAMPERT, MA. Prevalence of skin diseases and comorbidities in elderly in a dermatologic outpatient clinic. Rev. argent. dermatol. [online]. 2018, vol.99, n.2, pp.1-10. ISSN 1851-300X.

Introduction: the number of elderly people in the Brazilian population has been growing, reaching 14.3% of the population in 2015. The life expectancy in Rio Grande do Sul is 78.4 years in 2017. The factors responsible for this are the reduction of infant mortality, drop in fertility and increase in life expectancy. In the Brazilian and world literature, there are few studies on the prevalence of skin diseases in the elderly. Objectives: this study aims to characterize the epidemiological profile of skin changes and comorbidities that affect the elderly attended at the dermatology outpatient clinic of the Santa Maria 's University Hospital and the development of a check-list to help in the diagnosis of dermatosis in the geriatric dermatology care. Methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted analyzing data collected between May and August 2016, and included patients with ≥ 60 years old. Results: a total of 349 patients were studied, predominantly female (54.2%), white (94.5%), incomplete elementary school (58.8%), farmer (51.6%) and 58.4% were phototype II. The most prevalent comorbidities were hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus and osteoporosis; in addition, we found that among of the 10 most prevalent dermatosis, 7 are associated with hypertension. Basal cell carcinoma was the most commonly neoplasm; the most prevalent skin diseases were actinic keratosis, cutaneous xerosis, seborrheic keratosis, wrinkles and poikiloderma. Conclusions: based on the analyzed data, a check-list was set up to help in the diagnosis of the main skin diseases associated with each age group and the main comorbidities of this population. This study emphasizes the need for new research to be performed to better understand the dermatosis and comorbidities of the elderly.

Keywords : aged; skin diseases; neoplasms; hypertension; diabetes mellitus.