en systematic reviews Systematic Reviews <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><strong>Background:</strong> On the 26^th anniversary of the International Day of Older Persons in 2015 with the slogan &quot;the elderly, advocates of dynamism, growth, and the youth of the population&quot;, 12% (900 million individuals) of the world population were above 65 years of age. It is estimated that this rate will reach 22% (2 milliard individuals) by 2050. The purpose of the present study was to determine the status of the elderly and bacterial infections, their causes, prevention, and control methods.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><strong>Materials and Methods:</strong> In the present study, Magiran, SID, CAB Direct, PubMed, CDC, and World Health Organization (WHO) databases were searched using the keywords bacterial infections, old age, and control methods. The inclusion criteria included articles related to the study topic in English or Farsi. After the assessment of the articles, 40 articles were studied in detail.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><strong>Results:</strong> Due to the relative increase in the duration of life and diseases related to old age, the recurrence of some infections has been observed in the elderly. Immune system dysfunction, lifestyle, living area, elderly care method, and underlying diseases can be effective on aging and acquiring of infectious diseases. In elderly patients, infections, unlike in young adults, do not have evident symptoms. More than 30% of cases of mortality among the elderly are due to infectious diseases. The most common infections in the elderly are urinary tract, respiratory, unspecified, intra-abdominal, skin, and catheter-related infections.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Infectious diseases are of grave importance in the quantity of life and quality of life (QOL) of the elderly. Thus, the determination of their causes, the most common infectious diseases, and their causal factors in the world, developing countries, and Iran can play an important role in the management of these diseases.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> Elderly, Infection, Mortality, Iran 182 193 http://johe.rums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-148-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Sh Assar Assar_sh@yahoo.com 22400319475328460011585 22400319475328460011585 No Geriatric Care Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences T Mirzaei t.mirzaei@rums.ac.ir 22400319475328460011586 22400319475328460011586 Yes Geriatric Care Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Dept. of Medical Surgical Nursing, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences A Ravari dr.ravari@rums.ac.ir 22400319475328460011587 22400319475328460011587 No Geriatric Care Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Dept. of Medical Surgical Nursing, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences AR Vakilian Alirezavakilian7@gmail.com 22400319475328460011588 22400319475328460011588 No Geriatric Care Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Dept. of Neurology, School of Medicine, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences O Rezahosseini dr.kazemi@rums.ac.ir 22400319475328460011589 22400319475328460011589 No Dept. of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Tehran University of Medical Sciences F Hosseini Gcrc @rums.ac.ir 22400319475328460011590 22400319475328460011590 No Geriatric Care Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences S Assar dr.kazemi@rums.ac.ir 22400319475328460011591 22400319475328460011591 No School of Dentistry, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran. Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences