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. 2020 Oct;11(5):851-855.
doi: 10.1007/s41999-020-00354-7. Epub 2020 Jul 18.

Outcomes from COVID-19 across the range of frailty: excess mortality in fitter older people

Amy Miles  1 , Thomas E Webb  1 , Benjamin C Mcloughlin  1 , Imran Mannan  1 , Arshad Rather  1 , Paul Knopp  1 , Daniel Davis  2   3
Affiliations

Outcomes from COVID-19 across the range of frailty: excess mortality in fitter older people

Amy Miles et al. Eur Geriatr Med. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Purpose: Our aim was to quantify the mortality from COVID-19 and identify any interactions with frailty and other demographic factors.

Methods: Hospitalised patients aged ≥ 70 were included, comparing COVID-19 cases with non-COVID-19 controls admitted over the same period. Frailty was prospectively measured and mortality ascertained through linkage with national and local statutory reports.

Results: In 217 COVID-19 cases and 160 controls, older age and South Asian ethnicity, though not socioeconomic position, were associated with higher mortality. For frailty, differences in effect size were evident between cases (HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.93-1.12) and controls (HR 1.99, 95% CI 1.46-2.72), with an interaction term (HR 0.51, 95% CI 0.37-0.71) in multivariable models.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that (1) frailty is not a good discriminator of prognosis in COVID-19 and (2) pathways to mortality may differ in fitter compared with frailer older patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemiology; Frailty; Mortality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Kaplan–Meier curves showing 60 days survival by tertiles of Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and COVID-19 status
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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