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Meta-Analysis
. 2021 Jul 29;18(15):8008.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18158008.

Factors Associated with Mortality among Elderly People in the COVID-19 Pandemic (SARS-CoV-2): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Vicente Paulo Alves  1   2 , Francine Golghetto Casemiro  3 , Bruno Gedeon de Araujo  1 , Marcos André de Souza Lima  1 , Rayssa Silva de Oliveira  1 , Fernanda Tamires de Souza Fernandes  1 , Ana Vitória Campos Gomes  1 , Dario Gregori  2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Factors Associated with Mortality among Elderly People in the COVID-19 Pandemic (SARS-CoV-2): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Vicente Paulo Alves et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The objective of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the factors associated with the mortality of elderly Italians diagnosed with coronavirus who resided in institutions or who were hospitalized because of the disease.

Methods: A systematic review following the recommendations of The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) was carried out, utilizing the PEO strategy, i.e., Population, Exposure and Outcome. In this case, the population was the elderly aged over 65 years old, the exposure referred to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the outcome was mortality. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI/PubMed), Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS), Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE) and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases were used until 31 July 2020.

Results: Five Italian studies were included in this meta-analysis, with the number of elderly people included varying between 18 and 1591 patients. The main morbidities presented by the elderly in the studies were dementia, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and hypertension.

Conclusions: The factors associated with the mortality of elderly Italian people diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 who lived in institutions or who were hospitalized because of the disease were evaluated. It was found that dementia, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and hypertension were the main diagnosed diseases for mortality in elderly people with COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; clinical features; institutionalized or hospitalized elderly; meta-analysis; non-communicable chronic diseases (NCCDs).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the number of studies selected and included in the meta-analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mortality rate in the elderly obtained in the meta-analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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