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Observational Study
. 2024 Oct;15(5):1477-1487.
doi: 10.1007/s41999-024-01063-1. Epub 2024 Oct 19.

Clinical characteristics and predictors of complications and mortality in hospitalized octogenarian patients with COVID-19: an ambispective study

Marta Arroyo-Huidobro  1 , Natàlia Pallarès Fontanet  2 , Cristian Tebé Cordomí  2 , Antonella F Simonetti  3 , Carlos Pérez-López  4 , Gabriela Abelenda-Alonso  5 , Alexander Rombauts  5 , Isabel Oriol Bermudez  6 , Elisenda Izquierdo  7 , Vicente Díaz-Brito  8 , Gemma Molist  9 , Guadalupe Gómez Melis  10 , Sebastian Videla  11 , Alfons López Soto  12 , Jordi Carratalà  5 , Alejandro Rodriguez-Molinero  13 ; MetroSud and Divine Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations
Observational Study

Clinical characteristics and predictors of complications and mortality in hospitalized octogenarian patients with COVID-19: an ambispective study

Marta Arroyo-Huidobro et al. Eur Geriatr Med. 2024 Oct.

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to describe the clinical presentation of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients aged 80 or above and to identify predictors for death and complications throughout the epidemic waves of the disease.

Methods: This was an observational, multicenter, ambispective study conducted between March 2020 and August 2021 using data collected in five centers from southern metropolitan area of Barcelona (COVID-MetroSud cohort). Patients were grouped based on the pandemic waves of inclusion in the registry. We conducted a descriptive analysis, followed by bivariate and multivariate analyses (binary logistic regression) to identify predictors of risk for death or complications.

Results: A total of 1192 patients (mean [SD] age 85.7 [4.22] years and 46.8% female) were included. The most frequently reported symptoms in all waves were fever (63.1%), cough (56.5%), dyspnea (48.2%), and asthenia (27.5%). Laboratory and radiological findings consistently showed abnormal bilateral chest X-ray results (72.5% of patients) and elevated inflammatory markers such as lactate dehydrogenase (mean [SD] 335 [188] U/L), C-reactive protein (CRP) (mean [SD] 110 [88.4] U/L), and ferritin (mean [SD] 842 [1561] U/L). Acute respiratory distress syndrome (43.7%), renal failure (19.2%), and delirium (17.5%) were the most frequent complications. The overall mortality rate was 41.4% and declined across the epidemic waves. Age, diabetes mellitus, heart failure, dyspnea, and higher baseline levels of creatinine were identified as risk factors for complications, while a higher Barthel index and presence of cough were found to be protective. Age, dyspnea, abnormal bilateral chest X-ray, CRP, and sodium were identified as risk factors for death.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the clinical presentation of COVID-19 (fever, cough, dyspnea, and asthenia) and the different risk factors for mortality and complications in octogenarian hospitalized patients throughout the pandemic. These findings could be highly valuable for managing future virus pandemics.

Keywords: Aged 80 and over; COVID-19; Clinical complications; Mortality; Octogenarians; Pandemic waves; Risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that the have no conflict of interest. Ethical approval: For pseudonymization, all study data were identified by a case code and stored without any accompanying personal identification data. The sponsor and investigators of the study ensured that patient data procedures followed the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the Organic Law 3/2018 of December 5 on the Protection of Personal Data and guarantee of digital rights in Spain. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge. Additionally, it was developed in accordance with ethical principles originating from the latest version of the Helsinki Declaration accepted by local authorities and in line with Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and the requirements of current Spanish regulations. Informed consent: Considering that routinely collected data were anonymized, informed consent was not required.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Patient selection flowchart
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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