COVID-19 Pneumonia More Fatal for Older Adults

MONDAY, Feb. 13, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- COVID-19 is associated with significantly higher mortality in older adults in the intensive care unit (ICU) versus pneumonias from bacterial or other viral etiologies, according to a study published online Feb. 8 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Lenneke E.M. Haas, M.D., Ph.D., from Diakonessenhuis in Utrecht, Netherlands, and colleagues compared outcomes of 5,094 patients aged 70 years and older admitted to Dutch ICUs with COVID-19 versus patients aged 70 years and older admitted to the ICU for bacterial and other viral pneumonias (6,646 patients).

The researchers found that ICU mortality and in-hospital mortality rates of the older patients with COVID-19 were 39.7 and 47.6 percent, respectively, versus patients who were admitted in the same or in a historical time period with a bacterial pneumonia or other viral pneumonias (bacterial: 19.5 and 28.6 percent for historical cohort and 19.1 and 28.8 percent in the same period; other viral pneumonias: 20.7 and 28.9 percent for historical cohort and 22.7 and 31.8 percent in the same period). Associations remained after adjusting for clinical characteristics and ICU occupancy rate.

"Our findings provide important additional data to include in informed goals-of-care discussions," the authors write.

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