Open Access

Risk factors for the in‑hospital and 1‑year mortality of elderly patients hospitalized due to COVID‑19‑related pneumonia

  • Authors:
    • Vasiliki Epameinondas Georgakopoulou
    • Aikaterini Gkoufa
    • Sotiria Makrodimitri
    • Aristeidis Tsakanikas
    • Dimitrios Basoulis
    • Pantazis M. Voutsinas
    • Georgios Karamanakos
    • Irene Eliadi
    • Stamatia Samara
    • Maria Triantafyllou
    • Ioanna Eleftheriadou
    • Olga Kampouropoulou
    • Chrysovalantis V. Papageorgiou
    • Amalia Anastasopoulou
    • Petros Papalexis
    • Ilias Trakas
    • Nikolaos Trakas
    • Demetrios A. Spandidos
    • Paschalis Steiropoulos
    • Nikolaos V. Sipsas
  • View Affiliations

  • Published online on: November 20, 2023     https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2023.12310
  • Article Number: 22
  • Copyright: © Georgakopoulou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) is characterized by poor outcomes and a high mortality rate, particularly among elderly patients. Since the beginning of the pandemic, an older age has been recognized as a critical risk factor for disease severity, with increasing mortality rates in each decade of life. This phenomenon may be a consequence of a poor previous health status, with a higher prevalence of pre‑existing comorbidities and a higher degree of frailty. The majority of studies on the outcomes and risk factors of elderly patients refer to the first waves of the pandemic and the predictors of in‑hospital mortality in these patients. The aim of the present study was to provide a detailed description of the clinical characteristics and management of a cohort of elderly patients (≥65 years of age) who were hospitalized with COVID‑19‑related pneumonia in all phases of the pandemic, presenting their outcomes, and investigating predictors of in‑hospital and out‑of‑hospital mortality over a period of 1 year in this particularly vulnerable population. A total of 1,124 elderly patients (603 males, 53.7%) with a mean age of 78.51±7.42 years and a median Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) of 5 were included in the study. Of these patients, 104 (9.3%) were hospitalized during the period of prevalence of the original strain Wuhan, 385 (34.3%) were hospitalized during the period of prevalence of the Alpha variant, 221 (19.7%) were hospitalized during the period of prevalence of the Delta variant, and 414 (36.8%) were hospitalized during the period of prevalence of the Omicron variant. Overall, the in‑hospital mortality rate was 33.4% (375 patients), and the 1‑year mortality rate was 44.7% (502 patients). The majority of patients had not been vaccinated or had not completed full vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‑2 (843 patients, 75%), given the period of infection. Age, immature granulocytes, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, ferritin levels, chest X‑ray score, as well as the absence of full vaccination, cough and fatigue, were statistically significantly and independently associated with in‑hospital mortality, while age, LDH levels, ferritin levels, alanine aminotransferase levels, CCI, chest X‑ray score, the absence of cough and fatigue, and a history of dementia were statistically significantly and independently associated with 1‑year mortality. On the whole, the present study demonstrates that both the in‑hospital mortality and 1‑year mortality rates of elderly patients hospitalized due to COVID‑19‑related pneumonia are high.
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January-2024
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Spandidos Publications style
Georgakopoulou VE, Gkoufa A, Makrodimitri S, Tsakanikas A, Basoulis D, Voutsinas PM, Karamanakos G, Eliadi I, Samara S, Triantafyllou M, Triantafyllou M, et al: Risk factors for the in‑hospital and 1‑year mortality of elderly patients hospitalized due to COVID‑19‑related pneumonia. Exp Ther Med 27: 22, 2024.
APA
Georgakopoulou, V.E., Gkoufa, A., Makrodimitri, S., Tsakanikas, A., Basoulis, D., Voutsinas, P.M. ... Sipsas, N.V. (2024). Risk factors for the in‑hospital and 1‑year mortality of elderly patients hospitalized due to COVID‑19‑related pneumonia. Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, 27, 22. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2023.12310
MLA
Georgakopoulou, V. E., Gkoufa, A., Makrodimitri, S., Tsakanikas, A., Basoulis, D., Voutsinas, P. M., Karamanakos, G., Eliadi, I., Samara, S., Triantafyllou, M., Eleftheriadou, I., Kampouropoulou, O., Papageorgiou, C. V., Anastasopoulou, A., Papalexis, P., Trakas, I., Trakas, N., Spandidos, D. A., Steiropoulos, P., Sipsas, N. V."Risk factors for the in‑hospital and 1‑year mortality of elderly patients hospitalized due to COVID‑19‑related pneumonia". Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine 27.1 (2024): 22.
Chicago
Georgakopoulou, V. E., Gkoufa, A., Makrodimitri, S., Tsakanikas, A., Basoulis, D., Voutsinas, P. M., Karamanakos, G., Eliadi, I., Samara, S., Triantafyllou, M., Eleftheriadou, I., Kampouropoulou, O., Papageorgiou, C. V., Anastasopoulou, A., Papalexis, P., Trakas, I., Trakas, N., Spandidos, D. A., Steiropoulos, P., Sipsas, N. V."Risk factors for the in‑hospital and 1‑year mortality of elderly patients hospitalized due to COVID‑19‑related pneumonia". Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine 27, no. 1 (2024): 22. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2023.12310