Prevalence and clinical characteristics of senile pruritus in elderly patients in community health service center / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Three hundred patients aged≥60 year, who visited general practice clinic of Zhangjiakou Mingdebei Community Health Service Center or Beijing Fatou Community Health Service Center from March to May 2019, were randomly selected as study subjects. The prevalence of senile prutitus (SP) was calculated; the awareness, treatment and clinical characteristics of SP were surveyed with questionnaire. The degree of skin pruritus was compared among SP patients with different characteristics in the community, and the factors influencing pruritus of SP patients were analyzed. The results revealed that the prevalence of SP in elderly patients visiting community general practice clinic was 33.30% (198/600), the SP awareness rate was 29.29% (58/198), and the SP treatment rate was 23.23% (46/198). Frequent bath taken (>3 times/week, χ 2=9.129), long bathing time (>1 h/time, χ 2=12.742), regular use of alkaline detergents (χ 2=8.695), irregular life (χ 2 =14.819), spicy food (χ 2=9.852), not using moisturizer for skin care (χ 2=6.614), frequent drinking strong tea (χ 2=6.258), frequent drinking coffee (χ 2=6.513), poor sleep quality (χ 2=12.364) and irritability temperament (χ 2=23.120) were significantly associated with pruritus in elderly patients. (all P<0.05).The study indicates that the elderly patients in the community have a high incidence of SP, low awareness and low treatment rates. It is necessary to strengthen the health education, improve life style and live habits to reduce the incidence of SP in the community.