Analysis of the influencing factors for pulmonary infection in elderly patients with multimorbidity

OBJECTIVE To study the influencing factors for pulmonary infection in elderly patients with multimorbidity from the aspects of geriatric syndrome and serum biomarkers. METHODS A total of 246 elderly inpatients from the Geriatric Department at the First People′s Hospital of Yunnan Province from Nov 2020 to Sep 2021 were recruited. The general data and serum biomarkers in the patients were collected. Comprehensive geriatric assessment was conducted by an internet-based platform of the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment developed by the department of the hospital. RESULTS Among the 246 patients, 171（69.5%） had no pulmonary infection, and 75（30.5%） had pulmonary infection. The differences in nutritional status, polypharmacy, disability status, total protein, albumin, triacylglyceride, high density lipoprotein, serum sodium, serum calcium, ferritin, folic acid and 25-hydroxy-vitamin D among patients were significant（P＜0.05）. Binary Logistic regression analysis showed that malnutrition, polypharmacy, 25-hydroxy-vitamin D were independent factors for pulmonary infection（P＜0.05）. CONCLUSION The prevalence of pulmonary infection in elderly patients with multiple diseases is closely related to nutritional status, polypharmacy and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.