Background: Asthma in the elderly is underdiagnosed and associated with a higher risk for morbidity and mortality.

Objective: To describe clinical features and lung functions of asthma in Thai elderly patients.

Materials and Methods: The authors extracted data from the electronic medical records at Thammasat University Hospital between 2015 and 2019. Asthmatic patients aged 18 years or older were included and divided into elderly, being 65 years or older and non-elderly groups being younger than 65 years.

Results: Two thousand three hundred ninety-nine patients were screened and 1,600 were eligible for the study with 72.6% female. The median (IQR) age was 54.0 years (44.0, 64.0). FEV₁ was 74.6% (61.3, 86.7). There were 410 patients (25.6%) in the elderly group, or a prevalence of 0.23% of all elderly patients. Compared to the non-elderly group, patients in the elderly group were more predominantly female, had lower prevalence of allergic rhinitis, but higher prevalence of hypertension and diabetes. The elderly group also had lower pre-bronchodilator FVC at 77.2% (62.1, 91.8) versus 81.2% (69.8, 91.6) (p=0.012), and pre-bronchodilator FEV₁ of 1.23 L (0.96, 1.53) versus 1.86 L (1.42, 2.34) (p<0.001). Only bronchodilator response in FVC was higher in the elderly group, compared to the non-elderly group at 9.2% (2.7, 17.1) versus 3.9% (0.0, 10.4) (p<0.001).

Conclusion: Asthma prevalence in Thai elderly patients at a university hospital was low. Elderlies with asthma had lower prevalence of allergic rhinitis, lower lung functions, but higher bronchodilator response compared to non-elderly patients. Future studies should investigate the effects of comorbid diseases and lung functions on asthmatic outcomes among elderly patients.

Keywords: Asthma; Elderly; Lung functions; Prevalence

DOI: 10.35755/jmedassocthai.2022.11.13699

Received 11 April 2022 | Revised 19 September 2022 | Accepted 4 October 2022