Importantly, it has been demonstrated that good
adherence to the 2007 IDSA/ATS guidelines for
CAP has a significant beneficial impact on clinical
outcomes in elderly patients. In a cohort of
1649 hospitalized CAP patients aged 65 years,
adherence to guidelines was associated with a
significantly shorter time taken to achieve clinical
stability compared with nonadherence.
Adherence to guidelines was also associated
with shorter length of stay (8 days versus 10
days) and decreased overall in-hospital mortality
(8% versus 17%) [Arnold et al. 2009]. Recently, a
Danish study in older patients with CAP
reported that the CAP guidelines were mainly
applied with regard to diagnostic tests and treatment
initiation whereas nutrition and mobilization
were neglected or only sporadically
addressed [Lindhardt et al. 2013].