Hospitalization of the Elderly in the United States for Nonspecific Gastrointestinal Diseases: A Search for Etiological Clues.

HOSPITAL care of older people; ANALYSIS of variance; DATABASES; DIFFERENTIAL diagnosis; DISEASE susceptibility; ENTERITIS; GASTROINTESTINAL diseases; MEDICAL information storage & retrieval systems; LONGITUDINAL method; POISSON distribution; RESEARCH funding; SEASONS; VIRUS diseases; OLD age

The frequency of hospitalization among the elderly in the United States caused by gastrointestinal diseases between 1991 and 2004 increased dramatically, especially hospitalization of elderly individuals with nonspecific diagnoses. We analyzed 6640304 gastrointestinal disease-associated hospitalization records in this 14-year period by comparing the peak times of nonspecific gastrointestinal diseases with those of specific diseases. We found that most nonspecific gastrointestinal diseases peak concurrently with viral enteritis, suggesting a lack of diagnostic testing for viruses, which may adversely affect the efficiency of prevention, surveillance, and treatment efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]