A New Paradigm for Clinical Investigation of Infectious Syndromes in Older Adults: Assessing Functional Status as a Risk Factor and Outcome Measure

Adults aged 65 and over comprise the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, and older adults experience greater morbidity and mortality due to infection than young adults. While this factor is well established, most clinical investigation of infectious diseases in the aged focuses on microbiology, and crude endpoints of clinical success such as cure rates or mortality, but often fails to assess functional status, a critical variable in …