As the pandemic progressed, the scientific community gradually developed a better understanding of who is most vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Although age and certain underlying health conditions have long understood that it increases the risk of developing a serious case that requires hospitalization, new discoveries are still being made about which members of the population are at higher risk of contracting the virus. . Now, a new study from the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University has found that people with dementia are twice as likely to catch COVID as those who do not. Read on to see what other results the analysis has yielded, and for more information on other factors that may be at risk, go to If you did, you are twice as likely to develop severe COVID.
The comprehensive study, published in the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, analyzed the health records of 61.9 million people aged 18 and older in the United States between February 1 and August 21, 2020. The New York Times reports. The dataset considered for the study was by far the largest used in COVID research, and according to the authors, made up one-fifth of the United States population with information from 317,000 healthcare providers and 360 hospitals from all 50 states .
After analyzing data, the researchers found that 810 patients had dementia out of a group of 15,770 who tested positive for COVID-19. When adjustments were made for certain demographic factors such as gender, age, and race, the researchers found that patients with dementia were more than three times as likely to take COVID-19, while the group was only slightly reduced to twice as much as other conditions or accommodation in a nursing home are accounted for. And for more risk factors to have on your radar, look at If you had this common disease, you’re more likely to die from COVID.
The researchers also analyzed hospitalization and mortality rates for the subset of patients and discovered that COVID patients with dementia were also 2.6 times more likely to be hospitalized and 4.4 times more likely to die than patients without dementia during demographic conditions such as nursing home stay, age, or other existing conditions were offset.
“It’s pretty compelling to suggest that there is something about dementia that makes you more vulnerable,” Kristine Yaffe, MD, a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study, tells The New York Times. And for more information on how to stay safe from infection, find out why dr. Fauci says you need one of these at home to avoid COVID.
The wide data set of the study also found other tragic demographic trends. The results showed that black patients with dementia were almost three times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than white patients with dementia, and the authors of the study concluded that their findings’ the need for patients with dementia to protect, especially those who are black. “And sign up for our daily newsletter for more regular COVID news sent directly to your inbox.
Experts point out that, taking into account certain high-risk factors, the reason why dementia patients are more likely to catch the coronavirus is the result of their daily environment. “People with dementia are more dependent on those around them to do the safety equipment, to remember to wear a mask, to keep people away by social distance,” Kenneth Langa, MD, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the study, tells The times. “There is the cognitive impairment and the fact that they are more socially at risk.” And for more information on what you can protect against getting sick, go to this rare trait that can protect you against COVID, according to Doctors.