Abstract
The older population has a high mortality with COVID-19 and this cohort often presents atypically with infection. This study compares presenting complaints and observations of older patients with COVID-19 against the established case definition to determine whether the case definition should be broadened to better identify SARS-CoV-2 infection in this age group.This retrospective observational study analysed the presenting complaints and observations of people aged 70 years and over who were admitted to a district general hospital with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from March to May 2020.Out of 225 patients, only 11.5% presented with the trio of cough, fever and breathlessness; 30.2% did not present with any of these symptoms (p<0.001). The most frequent atypical complaints were delirium (25%), general malaise (20%) and falls (19%). Only 32.4% recorded a temperature ≥37.6°C on admission while 20.4% were hypothermic with a temperature <36.4°C (p=0.0003).A significant proportion of older patients with COVID-19 presented with non-specific symptoms and observations. The high proportion of falls and delirium emphasises the need for early geriatrician input, awareness of COVID-19 as a differential for confusion in older patients and to include falls in the case definition for COVID-19 in the older population.
Keywords: COVID-19; delirium; falls; geriatric medicine; presenting complaints.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, geriatric medicine, delirium, Falls, presenting complaints., 【초록키워드】 SARS-COV-2 infection, hospital, Infection, Symptom, cough, Cohort, older patient, Fever, age, temperature, Admission, patients, non-specific, retrospective, Atypical, observation, Confusion, high mortality, malaise, older population, identify, include, proportion, analysed, determine, presenting, recorded, these symptom, with COVID-19, 【제목키워드】 Patient, COVID-19 case,