COVID-19 Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 20 pp 19898—19910

Comparison of clinical characteristics of COVID-19 between elderly patients and young patients: a study based on a 28-day follow-up

Lin Zhang1, *, , Tao Fan1, *, , Shuo Yang2, *, , Haojie Feng1, *, , Bo Hao1, , Zilong Lu1, , Rui Xiong1, , Xiaokang Shen1, , Wenyang Jiang1, , Wei Wang1, , Qing Geng1, ,

  • 1 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, China
  • 2 Department of Cardiology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Cardiovascular Research Institute of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, China
* Equal contribution

Received: May 13, 2020       Accepted: September 5, 2020       Published: October 26, 2020      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.104077
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2020 Zhang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The number of corona virus disease 2019 cases is increasing rapidly. However, the comparison of clinical characteristics between patients ≥ 70 and those < 70 has not been implemented yet. To achieve that, we collected clinical data of consecutive 222 patients in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University diagnosed between January 13, 2020 and February 4, 2020. We divided them into an under-70 group and an over-70 group according to their ages, comparing their clinical characteristics. Meanwhile, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to identify the prognostic factors. Among the patients enrolled, 37 (16.67%) were 70 or older and 185 (83.33%) were younger than 70. Higher proportions of dyspnoea, expectoration, chronic cardiovascular disease, diabetes, organ complications, severe-to-critical cases, a higher death rate, a longer hospital stay and decreased immune status were observed in the over-70 group patients compared with their younger counterparts. The risk factors for death included dyspnoea, muscle ache, elevated myocardial enzymes, elevated C3 in over-70 patients and dyspnoea, pharyngalgia, chronic cardiac disease, increased C-reactive protein, IgA, decreased platelets in under-70 patients. Overall, our research compared the clinical characteristics of the two populations with different immune status and illustrated differentiated risk factors for death in them.

Abbreviations

COVID-19: corona virus disease 2019; ICTV: International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses; PHEIC: Public Health Emergency of International Concern; IQR: interquartile range; CRP: C-reactive protein; AST: aspartate aminotransferase; Cr: creatine; LDH: lactate dehydrogenase; CK: creatine kinase; AMI: acute myocardial injury; ARDS: acute respiratory distress syndrome; ALD: acute liver dysfunction; AKI: acute kidney injury; HR: hazard ratio; CI: confidence interval; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; ACE2: angiotensin-converting enzyme 2; ALT: alanine aminotransferase.