AWARENESS OF RISK FACTOR AND THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF PNEUNONIA AMONG ELDERLY IN UMUOFOR UMUCHOKE COMMUNITY EHIME MBANO

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Pneumonia is a more important concern in old people older than 65 years than younger individuals. Actually, the incidence of pneumonia among elderly is 4 times higher than younger individuals, with elevated risks of hospital admissions and higher mortality rates.Pneumonia is an infection or inflammation of the lungs and includes bronchopneumonia and lobar pneumonia. In practice, the diagnosis and management of pneumonia in the community is less dependent on the anatomical site of the infection than on its severity and effect on the individual patient.

Pneumonia in older patients is associated with significant morbidity and mortality compared to younger adults. Undertaking a severity assessment can give prognostic information in this group and help guide appropriate treatment. Prevention by means of vaccination is an important aspect that should also be given attention. In general, there are three types of pneumonia in the elderly: community-acquired, nursing home-acquired, and nosocomial pneumonia.

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) refers to patients who live in their home; these patients present more commonly than nursing home-acquired patients because most elderly live in their own homes. However, nursing home patients are a population deserving of special review as they have different characteristics and tend to be sicker than community patients.  Also, this population has a higher incidence of aspiration pneumonia compared to the community-acquired population.

Pneumonia is responsible for a great majority of physician admissions, treatment costs, work-school day losses and deaths. Despite positive improvements in diagnosis and treatment, the common use of antibiotics and efficient vaccination, pneumonia still leads to high rate of mortality and morbidity. The studies conducted have shown that the incidence of pneumonia increases with age.

Recent developments in nomenclature include the term healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP), which was incorporated in the 2005 American Thoracic Society guidelines. HCAP refers to any patient who develops pneumonia in the hospital, resides in a nursing home or residential care facility, receives home wound care, undergoes chronic dialysis, or is exposed to a family member with a multidrug resistant pathogen.

This review will focus on awareness risk factor and therapeutic intervention, as well as management of pneumonia in the elderly. For the purposes of this review, “elderly” is defined as patients 65 years or older. It is a special period that requires evaluation from a different viewpoint due to the numerous concurrent chronic diseases and the course of acute diseases with atypical symptoms and findings and also due to physiological, psychological and socio-economic changes. Pneumonia is the primary cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly population. Turk Thorac J (2009).

1.2    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Just like the saying goes “a nation without information is a deformed nation” this really true because there are certain things most people are ignorant about their health which might lead. Pneumonia is an acute infection of the lungs that can destroy humanity among the elderly, hence this study to enlighten all most especially the elderly. The challenges that lead to high mortality rate of affected patient could be as a result of lack of information or awareness concerning all that concerns pneumonia which might be a health challenge to the elderly. It could also be that there are no means of communication in some interior parts of the community were information can easily be disseminated. It could also be that there are no qualified health workers to handle the situations and more so, it could be that there is no possible therapeutic intervention in terms of treatment and qualified hands. Finally, several researches has been carried out on the effect of pneumonia on children but not even a single research has been carried out on awareness of risk factors and therapeutic management of pneumonia among elderly in Umuofor Umuchoke community Ehime Mbano.