Clinical Features of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Older Adults

Francesca Remelli; Stefano Volpato; Caterina Trevisan

doi:10.1016/j.cger.2022.03.001

Clinical Features of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Older Adults

Clin Geriatr Med. 2022 Aug;38(3):483-500. doi: 10.1016/j.cger.2022.03.001. Epub 2022 Mar 21.

Authors

Francesca Remelli¹, Stefano Volpato², Caterina Trevisan³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Science, University of Ferrara, Via Aldo Moro 8, 44124, Ferrara, ITALY. Electronic address: francesca.remelli@unife.it.
² Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Ferrara, Via Aldo Moro 8, 44124, Ferrara, ITALY. Electronic address: vlt@unife.it.
³ Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Ferrara, Via Aldo Moro 8, 44124, Ferrara, ITALY. Electronic address: caterina.trevisan@unife.it.

Abstract

Covid-19 clinical presentation is extremely heterogenous, especially in older patients due to the possible presence of atypical symptoms, such as delirium, hyporexia and falls. The clinical characteristics at onset are influenced by the presence of common health-related conditions in older people, such as comorbidity, disability and frailty, and not simply by chronological age. Few studies investigated the tendency of Covid-19 symptoms to aggregate in cluster and the use of cluster approach might better describe the clinical complexity of the acute disease. Concerning the prognostic significance of Covid-19 clinical presentation in older people, the available literature still provides discordant results.

Keywords: Aged; Comorbidity; Frailty; Mortality; SARS-CoV-2; Symptom clusters; Symptoms.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
COVID-19* / diagnosis
Comorbidity
Frailty* / diagnosis
Frailty* / epidemiology
Humans
SARS-CoV-2