The situation of geriatrics in Senegal: Evaluation of a year of activity at the national geriatric centre of the Senegalese National Retirement Institution, Dakar, Senegal

Objective: To determine the epidemiological, clinical and outcome characteristics of elderly patients admitted to the national geriatric centre in Dakar, and to identify the most frequent geriatric syndromes. Patients and methods: This was a descriptive retrospective study on a population aged 60 years and over. The socio-demographic and clinical data, including a geriatric assessment, was analysed for 132 patients admitted in 2017. Results: Among the 227 patients hospitalised during the period of our study, 132 patients were 60 years old and over, yielding a prevalence of hospitalisation of 58.27%. The mean age was 74 ± 8.8 years. The gender ratio was 3.1 in favour of men. A proportion of 66.7% of the men were married. The patients were mainly living in the Dakar suburbs (58, 3%). Seventy-nine patients admitted to medicine department (87.7%) presented cardiovascular comorbidities dominated by hypertension (53.3%), followed by diabetes (25.6%). Twenty-one patients were poly-pathological (23%). Polypharmacy concerned 3 patients (3.4%). Among the ninety patients admitted to medicine department, the main acute conditions found were infectious (39%) cardiovascular (27.8%) and metabolic disorders (24.4%). In surgery department, hernia (47.6%) and prostatic pathology (38%) were the most frequent. Five main geriatric syndromes were identified (deterioration in general condition, confusion, fall, pressure sores and cognitive impairment), as well as metabolic (23.3%) and infectious (14.4%) complications. Postoperative confusional syndrome affected 7% of cases. The overall mortality was 3.78%. Conclusion: Better knowledge of the epidemiology and morbidity among the elderly and, in particular, better identification of geriatric syndromes would improve the care of the elderly in Senegal.