Is age associated with different vital signs in adults presenting to hospital with bacterial infection? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Background It has long been suspected that the vital sign abnormalities that accompany bacterial infection are subtle or absent in older adults. This review summarises the evidence for whether older adults present with different vital sign abnormalities to younger adults when hospitalised with bacte...
| Publicado en: | Age & Ageing Vol. 54; no. 7; pp. 1 - 11 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Jul2025
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=187169235&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 187169235 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00020729 AGA jtl: Age & Ageing issn: 00020729 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2025 vid: 54 iid: 7 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 187169235 10.1093/ageing/afaf194 ppf: 1 ppct: 10 formats: tig: atl: Is age associated with different vital signs in adults presenting to hospital with bacterial infection? A systematic review and meta-analysis. aug: au: Tupper, Phoebe Redfern, Oliver Harrison, Charlotte H Gerry, Stephen Biggs, Christopher Walker, Bethany Watkinson, Peter affil: Critical Care Research Group, Kadoorie Centre for Critical Care Research and Education, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Oxford Critical Care, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, Oxford, UK Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK su: Patients Hospital care Hospital admission & discharge Age distribution Adults Old age Vital signs Medical information storage & retrieval systems Research funding CINAHL database Meta-analysis Fever Descriptive statistics Relative medical risk Systematic reviews MEDLINE Heart beat Bacterial diseases Tachycardia Symptoms sug: subj: Patients Hospital care Hospital admission & discharge Age distribution Adults Old age Vital signs Medical information storage & retrieval systems Research funding CINAHL database Meta-analysis Fever Descriptive statistics Relative medical risk Systematic reviews MEDLINE Heart beat Bacterial diseases Tachycardia Symptoms keyword: age diagnosis infection older people systematic review vital signs age diagnosis infection older people systematic review vital signs ab: Background It has long been suspected that the vital sign abnormalities that accompany bacterial infection are subtle or absent in older adults. This review summarises the evidence for whether older adults present with different vital sign abnormalities to younger adults when hospitalised with bacterial infection. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL EBSCO were searched from inception to 19 December 2024 for English-language research articles of patients hospitalised with bacterial infection reporting age and admission vital signs. We used meta-regression to assess how vital signs vary with age. Where studies reported vital signs in multiple age groups, we undertook a meta-analysis in younger (<65) and older patients (≥65). Evidence quality was assessed using an adapted Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. Results Our search yielded 14 487 studies; 132 were included after screening. Older adults were less likely to be tachycardic (RR 0.82, 0.69 to 0.97, I = 86.5%) with a mean difference in heart rate of 5 bpm (−7 to −3 bpm, I = 88.3%). Older adults were less likely to be febrile (RR 0.89, 0.83 to 0.95, I = 85.9%) with a mean difference in temperature of 0.14°C (−0.26 to −0.02°C, I = 94.6%). Most (129/132) studies were at high risk of bias. Conclusions Whilst differences in absolute values were small, there was consistency in the finding that older adults were less likely than younger adults to be tachycardic or febrile. As vital signs at presentation may prompt suspicion of infection, influencing investigations and treatment, special consideration for the possibility of infection in older patients with normal vital signs may be warranted. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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