Clinical characteristics of 1544 Brazilians aged 60 years and over with laboratory evidence for SARS-CoV-2.

INTRODUCTION

Infection with the new coronavirus responsible for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread worldwide. In Brazil, there are already more than 230 thousand dead, many of these older adults.

OBJECTIVE

To present the clinical characteristics of older Brazilian adults infected by COVID-19, in the epidemiological weeks (EW) 34-52, and to verify factors responsible for the increased risk of death.

METHODS

Retrospective and observational study conducted with secondary publicly available data, provided by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. 1,544 confirmed cases of registered COVID-19 infection were included between August 16 and December 26, 2020, aged 60 or older.

OUTCOMES

Demographic data, comorbidity, symptoms for disease, clinical information: days of hospitalization, chest X-ray, type of RT-PCR.

RESULTS

48% of patients admitted to the ICU with evidence for SARS-CoV-2 died. Symptoms and comorbidities related to increased chance of death (OR) were immunodeficiency (188%), kidney disease (166%), neurological disease (103%), dyspnea (86%), pneumopathy (55%), O saturation <95% (53%), respiratory discomfort (49%), age (36%), sore throat (31%), and sex (0.5%). There was a 5% increase in the chance of death for each year of life.

CONCLUSION

Heart disease and Diabetes mellitus were the most frequent comorbidities, but did not indicate an increased risk of death from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Age, sex, sore throat, dyspnea, respiratory discomfort, O saturation <95%, neurological disease, pneumopathy, immunodeficiency, and kidney disease were significantly associated with risk of death from COVID-19.