Association between the Demographic Characteristics, Severity, Clinical Symptoms, Vital Signs, Lab Findings with COVID-19 Outcomes in Older Adults

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is an evil infectious disease seriously threatening people's life and health for its high infectivity and incidence. A practical solution to curb the pandemic is to facilitate the recognition of poor prognostic factors at earlier stages, especially in vulnerable groups such as the elderly, to help clinicians make timely decision on treatment initiation. Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study on information extracted from the medical files of 534 COVID-19 cases aged 60 years and above. Then, the frequencies of these variables by the outcome (recovery or death) were analyzed, and the association between the demographic characteristics, severity, clinical symptoms, vital signs, and underlying health with the mortality rate was reported. Results: The average age of the population was 72.5±8.77 years. The overall mortality rate was 23.2%. The in-ICU mortality rate of 87%. Mortality increased considerably with a rise in Troponin level, 53% with Troponin≥100. RDW>16, and MCV>96.1 significantly increased mortality. 86% of the cases suffered from chronic diseases. The mortality rate in cases with autoimmune diseases was 64%, and with CKD was 51%. Conclusions: ICU admission was the strongest predictive indicator for poor outcomes. Mortality increased significantly in the elderly COVID-19 cases suffered from autoimmune diseases, CKD, underlying pulmonary and heart diseases, and diabetes, and those experiencing diastolic and systolic hypotension. MeSH terms: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Aged, Mortality, Prognosis