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Evaluation of Clinical and Laboratory Findings of Patients with COVID-19 Over 50 Years Old: A Retrospective Study
  • Aslı Şener
Aslı Şener
Bakırçay Üniversitesi Çiğli Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

Background: Individuals of any age can acquire SARS-CoV-2 infection, although adults of middle age and older are most commonly affected, and older adults are more likely to have severe disease. Therefore, the management of patients with COVID-19 over the age of 50 is very important. Aims: In this study, we aimed to investigate the epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory findings of COVID-19 patients over the age of 50 in a tertiary education and research hospital. Study Design: Single-center retrospective cross-sectional study. Methods: Patients older than 50 years of age who applied to the emergency service with suspected COVID-19 and had positive nasopharyngeal PCR were included in the study. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to their ages (50-64 years, 65-79 years, and 80 years and over, respectively). Demographic characteristics of the patients such as age, gender, admission symptoms, clinical findings, laboratory results, imaging results, and hospital follow-up periods were recorded. Results: A total of 119 patients were included in the study. Seventy-five patients were 50-64 years old (63.02%), 31 patients were 65-79 years (26.05%), and 13 patients were over 80 years old (10.9%). It was observed that fever and respiratory distress gradually increased with age (p = 0.019, p = 0.029). Considering the laboratory values between the groups, statistically significant differences were found in terms of anemia (p ˂ 0.05), lymphopenia (p ˂ 0.05), and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (p = 0.009). Positive computed tomography findings were detected in 88 (73.9%) cases. The rates of service and intensive care hospitalization increased with age and were highest in patients over the age of 80 (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Age is an important risk factor in COVID-19 disease. In COVID-19 disease, special protocols should be established for elderly patients and studies involving larger patient samples should be conducted.