BACKGROUND: The outbreak of COVID-19 has become a big threat to China, with high contagious capacity and varied mortality. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of older patients with COVID-19 out of Wuhan. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed, with collecting data from medical records of confirmed COVID-19 patients in Zhejiang province from Jan 17 to Feb 12, 2020. Epidemiological, clinical and treatment data were analyzed between those older (>/=60y) and younger (<60y) patients. RESULTS: Total 788 patients with confirmed COVID-19 were selected, where 136 were older patients with corresponding age of 68.28y+/-7.314y. There was a significantly higher frequency of women in the older patients compared with the younger patients (57.35% vs 46.47%, P=0.021). The presence of coexisting medical condition was significantly higher in older patients compared with younger patients (55.15% vs 21.93%, P<0.001), including the rate of hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases and COPD. Significantly higher rates of severe (older vs younger groups: 16.18% vs 5.98%, P<0.001)/critical (8.82% vs 0.77%, P<0.001) type, shortness of breath (12.50% vs 3.07%, P<0.001) and high temperature of >39.0 (13.97% vs 7.21%, P=0.010) were observed in older patients compared with younger patients. Finally, Higher rates of ICU admission (9.56% vs 1.38%, P<0.001) and methylprednisolone application (28.68% vs 9.36%, P<0.001) were also identified in older patients. CONCLUSIONS: The specific epidemiological and clinical features of older COVID-19 patients included significantly higher female gender, body temperature, co-existing of basic diseases and rate of severe and critical type.
download 🔖 [BibTeX]