pneumonia in the elderly

Pneumonia in Elderly Patients
Janet KuhaMidwestern State University
Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lung parenchyma particularly the alveoli (Koh, 2015). My research ought to find out the reasons why the elderly are more prone to pneumonia. The reasons include co-morbid conditions-heart diseases, inability to strongly cough, contagious illness-common cold and infectious settings-nursing homes (Komiya, Ishii, Kadota, 2015). The common types of infectious organisms are viruses or bacteria. The research question of my paper: Why are the elderly more susceptible to acquiring pneumonia in the healthcare setting and what modalities can be used to lower the mortality rate and quicken their recovery time?
In addition, the outline of the paper includes a discussion of the clinical characteristics of pneumonia in elderly patients. The sign and symptoms of pneumonia among geriatrics include; a productive cough, bloody sputum, fever and chills, chest pain, weakness, confusion as well as shortness of breath (Ebihara et al. 2015). The therapeutic interventions that can be used to lower the mortality rate and lead to a speedier recovery time include appropriate antibiotics or antiviral medication (Momosaki et al. 2015). The recovery time can be made speedier by hydration of the patient and consumption of healthy food. Elderly patients with pneumonia should be given antibiotics in time if the cause is bacteria. Other medications which lower mortality rate include antipyretics (Falcone et al.

, 2015).
The research methods used in the study include; observation, surveys, questionnaires, case studies. The research will also provide the conclusion of research findings and future research required to achieve the goal of lowering mortality. The research attempts to find out the reasons why the elderly are more vulnerable to bacteria or viruses which cause pneumonia and it aims at proposing the modalities that will reduce the rate of mortality and speed the recovery time. The approach of the study is interdisciplinary and thus I will include disciplines such as nursing and respiratory. Nursing is included since the nursing department is in charge of the management of elderly patients. The respiratory department is necessary for obtaining investigation of the respiratory system and laboratory measurements.

References
Momosaki, R., Yasunaga, H., Matsui, H., Horiguchi, H., Fushimi, K., Abo, M. (2015). Effect of dysphagia rehabilitation on oral intake in elderly patients with aspiration pneumonia. Geriatrics Gerontology International, 15(6), 694-699. https://doi.org/10.1111/ggi.12333
Falcone, M., Russo, A., Cangemi, R., Farcomeni, A., Clavieri, C., Barilla, F., Scarpellini, M. G., Bertazzoni, G., Palange, P., Tallani, G., Venditti, M., Violi, F. (2015). Lower mortality rate in elderly patients with community-onset pneumonia on treatment with aspirin. Journal of American Heart Association, 4(1). doi: 10.1161/JAHA.114.001595
Komiya, K., Ishii, H., Kadota, J. (2015). Healthcare-associated pneumonia and aspiration pneumonia. Aging and Disease, 6(1), 27-37. doi: 10.14336/AD.2014.0127
Koh, S. J., Lee J., H. (2015). Clinical characteristics of nursing home-acquired pneumonia in elderly patients admitted to a Korean teaching hospital. Korean Journal of Internal Medicine, 30(5), 638-647. doi: 10.3904/kjim.2015.30.5.638
Ebihara, S., Sekiya, H., Miyagi, M., Ebihara, T., Okazaki, T. (2016). Dysphagia, dystussia, and aspiration pneumonia in elderly people. Journal of Thoracic Disease, 8(3), 632-639. doi: 10.21037/jtd.2016.02.60