Hypothermia in the nursing home: Adverse outcomes in two older men

Older people are vulnerable to extreme changes of ambient temperatures caused by impaired thermoregulatory function. This results in a high mortality in older subjects during increases and decreases in the environmental temperature. ¹ From 1979 through 1994, a total of 11,817 deaths were reported in the United States for which hypothermia was the underlying cause (average annual number and rate: 739 and 0.3 per 100,000 population). Half of these occurred in adults older than age 65. For reasons that are unclear, mortality in men was more than double that in women (1.8 vs. 0.8). ^2,3 Presented are two cases of hypothermia with adverse outcomes in male residents living in long-term care facilities (LTCF).