COVID-19 in elderly: Correlations of viral load, clinical course, laboratory parameters, among patients vaccinated with CoronaVac.

SARS-CoV-2 virus was initially identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and a global pandemic was declared in March 2020 by World Health Organization. COVID-19 disease is characterized with severe pneumonia and hypoxemia, especially in the elderly population. The elderly population was primarily vaccinated with CoronaVac, which is a whole virion inactivated vaccine (Sinovac Biotech, China) in Turkey. This study aimed to investigate the association of viral load and laboratory parameters with the severity of the disease and vaccination status in elderly (older than 60 years old) COVID-19 patients. The age range of the patients was 61-97 years old with a mean of 71.80. Vaccinated patients had a lower viral load (P = 0.253) in nasopharyngeal swabs during breakthrough COVID-19 infection compared to unvaccinated ones and were hospitalized for a shorter period of time in hospital wards (P = 0.035). A lower number of patients were vaccinated in both moderate (n = 33, 29.20%) and severe/critical group (n = 46, 34.07%) (P = 0.412). Only 17 (32.08%) vaccinated patients were hospitalized in an intensive care unit (ICU), whereas 36 (67.92%) of the ICU patients were unvaccinated (P = 0.931). Severe/critical patients had higher c-reactive protein (CRP), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), fibrinogen, ferritin, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels compared to the moderate group on the admission day (P < 0.05). Our study suggested that elderly patients vaccinated with CoronaVac had a shorter stay in hospitals and according to our results CRP, PLR, fibrinogen, ferritin, and LDH levels could be used to determine the severity of the infections.

Association between depression scores and comprehensive geriatric assessment and frailty in geriatric outpatients with somatic complaints: an observational cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Depression is the most common psychiatric problem in older individuals. In some countries, the common approach is to ignore psychiatric disorders. This study aimed to reveal the importance of newly diagnosed high depression scores in the geriatric population admitted to outpatient clinics with somatic complaints. METHODS: Patients who did not have a previous diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder and were not receiving treatment were included in the study. A comprehensive geriatric evaluation of 235 elderly patients was performed using established assessment tests. The time and quality of sleep and the Clinical Frailty Scores (CFSs) were documented. RESULTS: The mean age of the 235 patients was 73.6 ± 6.39 years, 65.5% (n = 154) were women, and 34.9% (n = 81) had a geriatric depression score ≥ 5. In the higher depression rating scores group, the Lawton-Brody, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA-SF) scores were low (p = 0.010, p < 0.001, p = 0.003). Sleep duration was short, and sleep quality was poor (p = 0.042, p = 0.006). The CFSs were high. (p = 0.035) According to the regression analysis results, the MMSE, MNA-SF and CFS predicted higher depression scores significantly (p = 0.048, ß = .892; p = 0.045, ß = .661; p = 0.045, ß = 1.245). DISCUSSION: Depression scores in older people may be associated with not only mood but also the functionality. As with other geriatric syndromes, symptoms in depression may be atypical rather than typical.