334 Asthma in the Elderly: A Mexican Point of View

BACKGROUND: Asthma has been considered as mainly a childhood disease, however, 4 to 8% of the aged population suffer from it. In the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias, INER) Asthma's Clinic, in the year 2010, 1056 medical attention appointments were attended for patients of this group of age, representing 12.7% of total medical consults for asthma. In this study we describing the characteristics of elderly patients with asthma of INER's Asthma Clinic. METHODS: Descriptive, transversal, retrospective research. One hundred sixty eight patients with asthma diagnosis were included, 60 years old and more, subjects with other respiratory diagnosis were excluded, as those with tobacco smoking of more than 10 packs, and those with exposure to other types of smoke. RESULTS: 86% of the study group were women average age of 68.7 years old, the Forced Expiratory Volume in the first second (FEV1) average was of 76%. The 8.8% of patients had asthma diagnosed since childhood, and the rest onset with asthma symptoms at adulthood. Only 32% were submitted to skin prick tests; 4.5% suffered difficult asthma control; 56% of patients had overweight or obesity; 17.8% suffered Diabetes Mellitus type II, 37.5% had Arterial Systemic Hypertension and 3.75% had Ischemic Cardiopathy; 60% of patients had Gastroesophageal reflux symptoms, and 5% presented Obstructive sleep apnea. Most of the patients had a good control in Asthma Control Test (ACT). CONCLUSIONS: Asthma can initiate at any age, the advanced age is not directly associated to certain changes in airway remodeling, or not major disease severity. There's a high persistence of co-morbilities. This study shows that it's necessary to study this age group further, a group that is gradually on the increase.