Does age have an impact on acute mountain sickness? A systematic review

Abstract

Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is the most common form of illness at high altitude; however, it is still unclear whether age is a protective factor or a risk factor for the development of AMS in travellers. In recent decades, the number of travellers aged 60 years or older is increasing. Thus, the care of older travellers is a long-standing issue in travel medicine. This study aims to systematically review the current state of knowledge related to the effect of old age on the risk of AMS. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used, and the following databases were consulted: PubMed/Medline, Embase, Europe PubMed Central (EuropePMC), World Health Organization Library Database (WHOLIS) and Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS). The search yielded a total of 532 articles, of which 25 met the inclusion criteria, corresponding to 26 reports. Although the approaches, methods and quality were heterogeneous among the included studies, 12 reported a negative correlation between AMS prevalence and age, 11 detected no relationship and three papers indicated that the age of AMS subjects was significantly higher than controls. Despite these differences, old age does not seem to be a contraindication for travelling at high altitude. Thus, the presented synthesis will be useful for health professionals in travel medicine to better tailor their appropriate care for older adults who travel to destinations at high altitude.

Incidence and Determinants of Acute Mountain Sickness in Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia

“…Previous literature showed conflicting and inconclusive associations between age and AMS (Wang et al, 2010 ; McDevitt et al, 2014 ; Tang et al, 2014 ; Chan et al, 2016 ; Gonggalanzi et al, 2016 ; Cheng et al, 2017 ; Wu et al, 2018 ). This is predominantly due to the heterogeneity in study location, design, population, AMS diagnostic tool, and, most importantly, the small number of older adults included in the studies (Wu et al, 2018 ; Gianfredi et al, 2020 ). Studies that concluded older age as a protective factor have included more participants who were representative of the age group >55 years (Tang et al, 2014 ).…”

Dietary Fiber Intake and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

“…Any disagreements about the eligibility of particular studies were resolved through discussion with a senior reviewer (MN). In line with previous studies [ 17 , 18 ], a standardized form was used to extract data from the included studies for the assessment of research quality and evidence synthesis. As in previous reviews [ 19 , 20 ], the extraction form was pre-piloted on five randomly selected eligible studies.…”

Melatonin Relations with Energy Metabolism as Possibly Involved in Fatal Mountain Road Traffic Accidents

“…Oxygen availability, being restored along descent, leads, indeed, to a rebound of parasympathetic tonus [254]. Vagotonusinversely relates to age [255,256] and tends to be augmented by melatonin [257][258][259]. Enhanced vagal activity can lead to accidents by provoking failures in consciousness.…”