Prevalence and risk factors of senile pruritus: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES: To systematically assess the prevalence and risk factors for senile pruritus (SP) in the elderly (≥60 years of age). DESIGN: A meta-analysis was used to pool the prevalence and risk factors for SP estimated from individual studies. Four subgroup analyses were conducted to explore the prevalence for SP in different age, sex, research sites and region. SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND MEASURES: SP reduces quality of life in the elderly, yet the worldwide prevalence is unclear. Moreover, the risk factors for SP are controversial. Data from cross-sectional studies, case–control studies, longitudinal studies and cohort studies that reported the prevalence or the risk factors for SP were collected by searching nine electronic databases up to October 2020, including Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, CBM, CNKI, Wanfang and VIP. Two reviewers independently screened studies according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data and assessed methodological quality. Data analysis was performed using Stata V.15.1 software. RESULTS: Seventeen studies involving 28 666 participants were included. The overall pooled prevalence of SP was 21.04% (95% CI 11.37% to 32.72%). In addition, the results showed that smoking, excessive drinking and monophagism were possible risk factors for SP, with pooled ORs of 1.26 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.40), 25.03 (95% CI 18.28 to 34.25) and 1.22 (95% CI 1.12 to 1.33), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The overall prevalence of SP was high. Smoking, excessive drinking and monophagism were possible risk factors for SP. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019143295.