Psychiatry Investig.  2021 Jun;18(6):523-529. 10.30773/pi.2021.0064.

Association between Dementia and Clinical Outcome after COVID-19: A Nationwide Cohort Study with Propensity Score Matched Control in South Korea

• Wang SM
• Park SH
• Kim NY
• Kang DW
• Na HR
• Um YH
• Han S
• Park SS
• Lim HK

• KMID: 2517771
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2021.0064

Abstract

Objective
Despite a high prevalence of dementia in older adults hospitalized with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection (SARS-CoV-2), or so called COVID-19, research investigating association between preexisting diagnoses of dementia and prognosis of COVID-19 is scarce. We aimed to investigate treatment outcome of patients with dementia after COVID-19.
Methods
We explored a nationwide cohort with a total of 2,800 subjects older than 50 years who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between January and April 2020. Among them, 223 patients had underlying dementia (dementia group). We matched 1:1 for each dementia- non-dementia group pair yielding 223 patients without dementia (no dementia group) using propensity score matching.
Results
Mortality rate after COVID-19 was higher in dementia group than in no dementia group (33.6% vs. 20.2%, p=0.002). Dementia group had higher proportion of patients requiring invasive ventilatory support than no dementia group (34.1% vs. 22.0%, p=0.006). Multivariable analysis showed that dementia group had a higher risk of mortality than no dementia group (odds ratio=3.05, p<0.001). We also found that patients in dementia group had a higher risk of needing invasive ventilatory support than those in no dementia group.
Conclusion
Our results suggest that system including strengthen quarantines are required for patients with dementia during the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Keyword

SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, Dementia, Mortality.