Thoracic Research and Practice
Original Article

Clinical Differences Between Elderly and Non-elderly Patients with COVID-19

1.

Department of Chest Disease University of Health Sciencies, Dr Suat Seren Chest Disease and Surgery Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey

2.

Department of Chest Diseases, İzmir Bakırçay University Çiğli Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey

3.

Department of Chest Diseases, İzmir Katip Çelebi University Faculty of Medicine, İzmir, Turkey

Thorac Res Pract 2022; 23: 238-245
DOI: 10.5152/TurkThoracJ.2022.21288
Read: 1105 Downloads: 405 Published: 20 April 2022

OBJECTIVE: Comorbidity frequency and mortality rates are higher in elderly patients with COVID-19. The disease is also more severe in elderly patients. This study aims to examine the characteristics of the COVID-19 disease, severity, comorbidities, and mortality rates in elderly patients by comparing them with nonelderly patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was designed as a retrospective study. 469 patients who were followed up in outpatient, inpatient, and intensive care units with the diagnosis of COVID-19 between March 11, 2020, and June 01, 2020, were retrospectively included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups who were ≥65 years named as the “elderly group” and <65 years referred to as “nonelderly”. Survival data was generated from the death notification system on August 02, 2020.

RESULTS: A total of 469 patients including elderly(n=101) and nonelderly(n=368) were included in the study retrospectively. The inci- dence of severe pneumonia(31%/12.6%) and critical illness(16%/5.8%), comorbidity (85%/37.2%) and hospitalization time(8/5 days) were significantly higher in the elderly group(p<0.05). 23 (22.8%) of elderly patients and 27(7.3%) of nonelderly patients died (p=0.000). Mortality was found to be 3.5 times higher than in the non-elderly group. The expected survival time was 145.85 days(CI 95%:133- 158.66) in the elderly patients and 170.36 days(CI 95%:166-174.6) in the nonelderly patients (p<0.000). In ROC analysis, the sensitivity of age was 86%(73.3-94.2), specificity was 66.83%(62.1-71.3), and the cut-off>56 (AUC:0.775; p <0.001) in predicting mortality.

CONCLUSION: Mortality is high, comorbidities are more frequent, and the disease is more severe in elderly patients with COVID-19. Age above 56 can be used as a cut-off to predict mortality.

Cite this article as: Demirci Üçsular F, Karadeniz G, Polat G, et al. Clinical differences between elderly and non-elderly patients with COVID-19. Turk Thorac J. 2022;23(3):238-245.

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