A study of the status of the elderly; bacterial infections, their causes, prevention, and control methods

Received: October 2016, Accepted: January 2017 Background: On the 26 th anniversary of the International Day of Older Persons in 2015 with the slogan "the elderly, advocates of dynamism, growth, and the youth of the population", 12% (900 million individuals) of the world population were above 65 years of age. It is estimated that this rate will reach 22% (2 milliard individuals) by 2050. The purpose of the present study was to determine the status of the elderly and bacterial infections, their causes, prevention, and control methods. Materials and Methods: In the present study, Magiran, SID, CAB Direct, PubMed, CDC, and World Health Organization (WHO) databases were searched using the keywords bacterial infections, old age, and control methods. The inclusion criteria included articles related to the study topic in English or Farsi. After the assessment of the articles, 40 articles were studied in detail. Results: Due to the relative increase in the duration of life and diseases related to old age, the recurrence of some infections has been observed in the elderly. Immune system dysfunction, lifestyle, living area, elderly care method, and underlying diseases can be effective on aging and acquiring of infectious diseases. In elderly patients, infections, unlike in young adults, do not have evident symptoms. More than 30% of cases of mortality among the elderly are due to infectious diseases. The most common infections in the elderly are urinary tract, respiratory, unspecified, intra-abdominal, skin, and catheter-related infections. Conclusions: Infectious diseases are of grave importance in the quantity of life and quality of life (QOL) of the elderly. Thus, the determination of their causes, the most common infectious diseases, and their causal factors in the world, developing countries, and Iran can play an important role in the management of these diseases.