What is it about?

After surviving COVID-19, many people continue to experience physical, neuropsychiatric, and cognitive symptoms. Cognitive symptoms, like trouble thinking or remembering things, may last longer than other symptoms, especially for those with dementia. Unfortunately, the risk of death doesn't end with the acute phase of infection. Even up to a year later, people who have had COVID-19 are at a higher risk of dying, possibly due to ongoing inflammation or blood clotting issues. Dementia is a risk factor for dying during the acute phase of infection, but we don't yet know if it also increases the risk of dying in the longer term. Using information from the UK National Health Service, we want to find out if people with dementia who survived COVID-19 are at a higher risk of dying after the acute phase, how long that higher risk lasts, and what factors might be associated with that risk.

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Why is it important?

Finding out what things increase the risk of a health problem can be really useful for doctors and other healthcare providers. By knowing who is most at risk, they can give extra special care to those people and hopefully help prevent the health problem from getting worse.

Perspectives

We've discovered that people with dementia who get COVID-19 are more likely to die, even after they leave the hospital. This higher risk lasts for about 125 days. We found some things that make the risk of dying higher for people with dementia, like being on certain medications. We can use this information to predict who might be at higher risk of dying and give them extra care to try to prevent it.

Shanquan Chen
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Risk Factors for Longer-Term Mortality in Discharged Patients with Dementia and SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Matched Case-Control Study, Journal of Alzheimer s Disease, March 2023, IOS Press,
DOI: 10.3233/jad-221093.
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