Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ho, Frederick K
• Petermann-Rocha, Fanny
• Gray, Stuart R
• Jani, Bhautesh D
• Katikireddi, S Vittal
• Niedzwiedz, Claire L
• Foster, Hamish
• Hastie, Claire E
• Mackay, Daniel F
• Gill, Jason M R
• O'Donnell, Catherine
• Welsh, Paul
• Mair, Frances
• Sattar, Naveed
• Celis-Morales, Carlos A
• Pell, Jill P
• Feng, Ying-Mei

Titel

Is older age associated with COVID-19 mortality in the absence of other risk factors? General population cohort study of 470,034 participants

Ist Teil von

• PloS one, 2020-11, Vol.15 (11), p.e0241824

Ort / Verlag

United States: Public Library of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Older people have been reported to be at higher risk of COVID-19 mortality. This study explored the factors mediating this association and whether older age was associated with increased mortality risk in the absence of other risk factors. In UK Biobank, a population cohort study, baseline data were linked to COVID-19 deaths. Poisson regression was used to study the association between current age and COVID-19 mortality. Among eligible participants, 438 (0.09%) died of COVID-19. Current age was associated exponentially with COVID-19 mortality. Overall, participants aged ≥75 years were at 13-fold (95% CI 9.13-17.85) mortality risk compared with those <65 years. Low forced expiratory volume in 1 second, high systolic blood pressure, low handgrip strength, and multiple long-term conditions were significant mediators, and collectively explained 39.3% of their excess risk. The associations between these risk factors and COVID-19 mortality were stronger among older participants. Participants aged ≥75 without additional risk factors were at 4-fold risk (95% CI 1.57-9.96, P = 0.004) compared with all participants aged <65 years. Higher COVID-19 mortality among older adults was partially explained by other risk factors. 'Healthy' older adults were at much lower risk. Nonetheless, older age was an independent risk factor for COVID-19 mortality.