Clinical characteristics and outcomes in elderly with coronavirus disease 2019 in Beijing, China: a retrospective cohort study

In this study, we aimed to explore the clinical characteristics and outcomes in older patients with COVID-19. Ninety-one patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection were included in the study, 27 of which (29.67%) were elder ly. The median age of these 27 patients was 74.9 years (interquartile range 68–82; range 65–94 years), and 15 (55.56%) were female. Elderly with COVID-19 in Beijing (China) were more likely to have underlying comorbidities and more frequently tended to have critical illness and suffer from mor e complications. The main treatments of the elderly consisted of symptomatic and respiratory support. The most frequent complications in the elderly were pleural effusion [10, (37.04%)], secondary infection [7, (25.93%)], and kidney damage [7, (25.93%)]. Six (22.22%) of the 27 elderly patients recei ved invasive ventilation (three of them switched to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). As of March 7, 20 (74.07%) of the 27 elderly patients were discharged, two (7.41%) were still hospitalized, and five died; the mortality in the elderly was 18.52%. Age was associated with the mortality in patie nts with COVID-19 (OR 0.82; 95% CI 0.70–0.97;P = 0.019). Therefore, more attention should be paid to the treatment of comorbidities and complications in elderly patients.
Source: Internal and Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Source Type: research