PREVALENT SKIN DISEASES IN ELDERLY DERMATOLOGY PATIENTS: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS

Dermatological diagnosis in adults 60 years old and over.

Abstract

Background: The documentation of the spectrum of skin diseases in individuals aged 60 years and over is not readily done despite older individuals accounting for a large percentage of dermatology patients. The study aimed to document the spectrum of skin diseases diagnosed in dermatology patients aged 60 years and over, and to conduct a gender based comparison of diagnoses.

Methodology:  This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of 482 patients aged 60 years and over who attended the outpatient dermatology clinic of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, between January 2017 and December 2022. Sociodemographic data: age, gender and diagnoses were documented. Diagnoses were coded using the ICD-10 code. Clinical diagnoses were compared between males and females. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 25. Frequency and means are presented. Chi-squared, Fischers’ exact test and the Student‘t’ test were utilized for comparisons and significance. A p-value <0.05 was considered significant for all statistical tests.

Results: Patients aged 60 years and above accounted for 14.4% of the dermatology patients. The population was 43% male with a mean age (± SD) of 38.6 (17.5) and an age range of 60 to 98 years. Non-infectious diseases accounted for 71% of the diagnoses, followed by infectious diseases at 14.9% and tumours at 14.1%. The commonest group of diseases diagnosed were the eczemas and dermatitis (26.8%), papulosquamous diseases (8.5%) and fungal infections (7.7%). On comparison of diagnosis between males and females, autoimmune connective tissue diseases was more in females (p=0.0219) while urticaria and angioedema (p= 0.0379) were significantly more diagnosed in men.