VOA标准英语2010年-Study: Death Rates Higher for Elderly

The U.S. Census¹ Bureau estimates that by the year 2080, one in five Americans will be over age 65.  For some time, experts have warned that health care needs of the elderly will be enormous in the years ahead.  A study out this week raises concern for older patients who leave a hospital after surviving a critical illness.

American hospitals are doing a better job of keeping elderly patients alive while they're in intensive care.  Reports indicate there's a decrease in the risk of in-hospital deaths.

But a study of elderly patients discharged from a hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) shows that almost 40 percent did not survive beyond the research period of three years.

Dr. Hannah Wunsch of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons says for some patients, the survival rate was even less.

"A lot of these patients are at the highest risk of death and re-hospitalization and problems in the six months following discharge from the hospital," said Dr. Wunsch.

Dr. Wunsch and colleagues studied the survival rate of 35,000 intensive care patients discharged from U.S. hospitals.  They were randomly² chosen from data of the U.S. government's medical assistance program for the elderly, called Medicare.

The intensive care patients were then compared to elderly patients assigned to other hospital units or in the general Medicare population.

Patients transferred from the ICU to skilled nursing facilities, and who needed a ventilator to breathe, faced the highest risk. 

More than one million elderly are survivors³ of intensive care in the United States.  Dr. Wunsch says these grim statistics raise serious questions about future treatment of the critically ill.

"We really need to pay a lot of attention to those patients when they leave the hospital and not just leave them with the idea that they are going to continue their lives as before," added Dr. Wunsch.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
 

1 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

2 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

3 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者