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CLEVELAND (February 9) – A study by researchers at Case Western Reserve University found that patients with dementia had a significantly increased risk of COVID-19 – and the risk was even higher for African Americans with the disease of dementia.
Examining the electronic health records of 61.9 million adults in the United States, researchers found that the risk of contracting COVID-19 was twice as high for patients with dementia as for those who did not. had none – while among those with dementia, African Americans had almost three times as much. the risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 as did Caucasians.
Additionally, patients with dementia who contracted COVID-19 had significantly worse outcomes in terms of hospitalizations and death than those who had COVID-19 but not dementia.
The study was released on February 9 by the committee Alzheimer’s and dementia: the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association and emphasizes the need to protect people with dementia – especially African Americans – as part of the pandemic control strategy.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, approximately 5.8 million Americans aged 65 and over and 50 million people around the world live with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
“Our results underscore how important it is to protect people with dementia from SARS-CoV2, as they are at a higher risk of developing severe disease than people without dementia,” said Pamela Davis, co-author of the study, Dean Emeritus of Case Western Reserve School. of Medicine. “These patients may constitute another vulnerable category. However, more work is needed to understand the mechanism by which this occurs.”
The study’s authors also include two other members of the School of Medicine: Rong Xu, senior research scientist and professor of biomedical informatics and director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery, and QuanQiu Wang, intelligence specialist. artificial. Co-author Mark Gurney is the Founder and CEO of Tetra Therapeutics, a drug development company specializing in brain disorders and injuries based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Shionogi & Co., Ltd.
They hypothesized that the risk of COVID-19 would be higher for patients with dementia for several reasons, including: People with dementia may be more likely to contract COVID-19 due to damage to the barrier blood brain which can make it easier for certain viruses and bacteria to reach the brain.
Additionally, dementia can interfere with a person’s ability to wear a mask, move away physically from others, or wash their hands frequently. Additionally, conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension are risk factors for both dementia and COVID-19 and are associated with worse outcomes.
“On behalf of the millions of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias that we represent, these preliminary findings suggest a frightening reality of the vulnerabilities associated with dementia,” said Maria Carrillo, PhD, Scientific Director of the Alzheimer Association. “It is essential that we develop and implement strategies that strike a balance between protecting people, especially residents of long-term care facilities, from COVID-19, but also protecting them from harm to the community. health associated with social isolation.
Researchers examined electronic health records (devoid of identifying information) of 360 hospitals and 317,000 providers nationwide, representing 20% of the US population. Of the 61.9 million adults in the study population, more than one million suffered from dementia, 15,770 had COVID-19 and 810 both.
“The availability of such an anonymized database of electronic patient health records analyzed by modern computer techniques gave our study great power in detecting vulnerabilities in disease groups of patients,” said Xu.
The researchers also adjusted the data to take into account factors such as age, sex, race, other health conditions and whether people lived in a nursing home. They used an adjusted odds ratio to determine risk.
Their conclusions:
- While overall, the chances of contracting COVID-19 were twice as high for patients with dementia as for those without dementia, the risk varied depending on the condition. Patients with vascular dementia had the highest risk – with a probability more than three times higher – followed by patients with presenile dementia, senile dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and post-traumatic dementia.
- The odds of African Americans with dementia contracting COVID-19 were almost three times higher than those of Caucasians with dementia. In general, gender had no additional effect on the risk of COVID-19 in patients with dementia, while age had no additional effect in patients with dementia in general and Alzheimer’s in particular. .
- The overall risk of hospitalization within six months for adults with COVID-19 was 25.17%. But among patients with COVID-19 and dementia, 59.26% were hospitalized, and the percentage was even higher – 73.08% – among African-American patients, compared to 53.85% of Caucasians with two conditions.
- The overall risk of death for patients with COVID-19 was 5.64%. But of those who also suffered from dementia, 20.99% died, the percentage being higher for African Americans (23.08%) than for Caucasians (19.23%).
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This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers AG057557, AG061388, AG062272) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (grant number UL1TR002548-01).
Case Western Reserve University is one of the country’s leading private research institutes. Located in Cleveland, we offer a unique combination of cutting-edge educational opportunities in an inspiring cultural setting. Our cutting-edge professors engage in teaching and research in a collaborative and practical environment. Our nationally recognized programs include the arts and sciences, dentistry, engineering, law, management, medicine, nursing, and social work. Approximately 5,100 undergraduates and 6,700 graduate students make up our student body. Visit case.edu to see how Case Western Reserve thinks beyond the possible.
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