Pneumonia - Risk Factors

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Dementia. The lack of ability to concentrate while swallowing contributes to an increased risk of aspiration pneumonia. Elderly patients with dementia who are treated with antipsychotic drugs for psychosis have a 60% increased risk of developing pneumonia. Researchers are not sure why these drugs increase the pneumonia risk.

If a person inhales fluid (aspirates) from the esophagus into the lungs, it may trigger inflammation in these upper passages.

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Factors Associated with a Higher Risk in Healthy Adults

Dormitory or Barrack Conditions. Recruits on military bases and college students living in dormitories are at higher-than-average risk for Mycoplasma pneumonia. These groups are at lower risk, however, for more serious types of pneumonia.

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Smoke and Environmental Pollutants. The risk for pneumonia in people who smoke more than a pack a day is three times that of nonsmokers. Those who are chronically exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke, which can injure airways and damage the cilia, are also at risk. Quitting smoking reduces the risk of dying from pneumonia to normal, but the full benefit takes 10 years to be realized. Toxic fumes, industrial smoke, and other air pollutants may also damage cilia function, which is a defense against bacteria in the lungs.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Alcohol or drug abuse is strongly associated with pneumonia. These substances act as sedatives and can diminish the reflexes that trigger coughing and sneezing. Alcohol also interferes with the actions of macrophages, the white blood cells that destroy bacteria and other microbes. Intravenous drug abusers are at risk for pneumonia from infections that start at the injection site and spread through the bloodstream to the lungs.

Men with community-acquired pneumonia tend to fare worse than women. Men are 30% more likely than women to die from the condition, even if the severity of the illness is the same. Researchers say there may be some genetic reason for the disparity.