Effects of pneumonia hospitalization comparable to the negative health effects of heart disease
The long-term consequences of pneumonia can be more detrimental to a person's health than having a heart attack, according to joint research from the University of Michigan Health System and University of Washington School of Medicine.
Older adults who are hospitalized for pneumonia have a significantly higher risk of new problems that affect their ability to care for themselves, and the effects are comparable to those who survive a heart attack or stroke, according to the new findings in the American Journal of Medicine.
"Pneumonia is clearly not only an acute life threatening event but also a profoundly life altering event," says senior author Theodore J. Iwashyna, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at U-M and who also works with the Institute of Social Research and the VA Center for Clinical Management Research. "The potentially substantial chronic care needs and diminished quality of life for survivors are comparable to the effects of heart disease, yet we invest far fewer resources to pneumonia prevention."
Patients who were treated for pneumonia - including those hospitalized even once in a nine-year period and who did not require critical care - were more than twice as likely to develop new cognitive impairments. These new brain problems were so big that they often lead to disability and nursing home admissions among older adults. After treatment for pneumonia, patients also had nearly double the risk of substantial depressive symptoms.