Hypoalbuminemia and Other Factors Related to the Development of Pneumonia Acquired Outside Hospital in the Young Elderly and the Old Elderly: the Finding from a Case-Control Study in Southern Japan.

Objective: Pneumonia is the third largest cause of death in Japan, and the death rate is particular high among the old elderly. The present study was conducted to evaluate risk or preventive factors for pneumonia among the young-elderly (i.e., 65 to 74 years old) as well as old-elderly (i.e., 75 years old or older), separately. Design: case-control study. Methods: We carried out two case-control studies using the data set of our previous study. Among 50 pneumonia patients and 110 control subjects (not pneumonia), 19 cases and 48 controls were young elderly while 31 cases and 62 control subjects were old elderly. Results: After controlling age, sex, and hospital, hypoalbuminemia (< 3.5 g/dl) increased the risk of pneumonia among both young elderly (OR = 9.19, 95%CI = 2.15 to 39.21) and old elderly (OR = 11.72, 95%CI = 3.82 to 35.94). Even after excluding those who lived in nursing homes, hypoalbuminemia remained as a significant risk factor for pneumonia among the young elderly (OR = 7.85, 95%CI = 1.77 to 34.82) and among the old elderly (OR = 42.73, 95% CI = 8.32 to 219.54). Conclusions: Hypoalbuminemia may be a risk factor for pneumonia among both young-elderly and old-elderly who live in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]