Analysis of death causes for patients aged 60 years and over at a level A tertiary hospital in Beijing / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the death causes in recent years,the ranking of causes and changes in ranking in elderly patients at a level A tertiary hospital in Beijing,in order to provide suggestions and a basis for effective prevention and management of diseases,achieve better utilization of medical resources and improve quality of life in the elderly.Methods Death records of 3991 patients aged over 60 years in the People's Hospital of Peking University from January 2010 to October 2016 were collected and retrospectively analyzed with SPSS 20.0 by using descriptive statistics,the linear-by-linear association test and the Pearson correlation coefficient.Results In the past 7 years,the top four causes of death were diseases of the circulatory system(1074 cases,30.1 ％),the respiratory system(1074 cases,26.9 ％),tumors (927 cases,23.2 ％) and the digestive system (284 cases,7.1 ％).There was no significant difference in the ranking of death causes between males and females.Of the death causes,the mortality rate of respiratory diseases increased and the mortality rates of the circulatory system and tumors decreased year by year.Diseases of the circulatory system ranked first in the death causes from 2010-2013,and diseases of the respiratory system ranked first from 2014-2016.The primary death cause was different in different age groups,with cancer for the 60-74 years old group,diseases of the circulatory system for the 75-84 years old group,diseases of the circulatory system for the over 85 years old group.The leading causes for death were coronary heart disease for diseases of the circulatory system,pulmonary infections for diseases of the respiratory system and digestive system tumors for tumors.Conclusions In recent years,the primary death cause in elderly patients at our hospital is circulation system diseases.The mortality rate of respiratory diseases has increased year by year.Death causes vary in different age groups,suggesting it is necessary to provide different screening and prevention measures for the elderly at different ages.