Functional Decline in COVID-19 Older Survivors Compared to Other Pneumonia Patients, a Case Control Study.

OBJECTIVES: Among patients over 75 years, little is known about functional decline due to COVID-19. The aim of this study was to explore this functional decline, compare to other infectious pneumonia. DESIGN AND SETTING: This case-control study included all COVID-19 patients hospitalized from March to December 2020 in Acute Geriatric Ward in Nantes University Hospital matched 1/1 with patients with pneumonia hospitalized in geriatric department between March 2017 and March 2019 (controls) on sex, age. Functional decline was assessed at 3 month follow up as it is routinely done after hospitalization in geriatric ward. We performed multivariable analyses to compare clinical outcomes between patients with COVID-19 vs controls. RESULTS: 132 pairs were matched on age (mean: 87 y-o), and sex (61% of women). In multivariable logistic regression analysis, there were no statistical significant association between COVID-19 infection and functional decline (OR=0.89 p=0.72). A statistical significant association was found between functional decline and Charlson comorbidity index (OR=1.17, p=0.039); prior fall (OR=2.08, p=0.012); malnutrition (OR=1.97, p=0.018); length of hospital stay (OR=1.05, p=0.002) and preadmission ADL(OR=1.25, p=0.049). CONCLUSION: COVID-19 does not seem to be responsible for a more frequent or severe functional decline than other infectious pneumonia in older and comorbid population after 3 month follow up. In this population, pneumonia is associated with functional decline in almost 1 in 2 cases. The individual preadmission frailty seems to be a more important predictor of functional decline, encouraging multidimensional care management for this population.

Predictors of Health-Related Quality of Life Decline after Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in Older Patients with Severe Aortic Stenosis.

BACKGROUND: Transcatheter aortic-valve implantation (TAVI) has been shown to improve survival and quality of life in patients with severe aortic stenosis. However, one-third of patients have poor outcome as death, functional decline or quality of life (QoL) decline. The aim of this study was to determine cardiac and geriatric predictors of physical and mental QoL decline 6 months after a TAVI procedure in patients aged 75 and older. METHODS: Between January 2013 and June 2014, we did a prospective and multicenter study including patients ≥ 75 years old referred for TAVI. The primary outcome was the measure of QoL, assessed by the Short Form 36 survey (SF-36), before and 6 months after the intervention. Association between QoL decline and baseline characteristics including cardiac and geriatric factors was analysed by logistic regression models. RESULTS: Mean age of the 150 patients studied was 83.7 years old and 56% were men. The primary end point, mean SF-36 physical summary score, significantly improved between baseline and 6-month (33.6 vs. 36.4, p=0.003) whereas mental component score significantly decreased (48.2 vs. 36.4, p-value<0.001). However, patients with presence of depressive symptoms before the intervention had mental QoL improvement at six months (OR 0.04 [0.01-0.19], p-value<0.001) and no significant geriatric predictors were associated with physical QoL decline. CONCLUSION: The mental QoL significantly decreased and patients with preoperative depressive symptoms had mental QoL improvement at six months. Researches are needed to confirm that mental QoL of patients with depressive symptoms can be improved by TAVI.