• Rabia Bağ Soytaş, Damla Ünal, Pınar Arman, Veysel Suzan, Tuğçe Emiroğlu Gedik, Günay Can, Bora Korkmazer, Rıdvan Karaali, Şermin Börekçi, Mert Ahmet Kuşkucu, Hakan Yavuzer, Deniz Suna Erdinçler, and Alper Döventaş.
• Division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, İstanbul, Turkey
• Turk J Med Sci. 2021 Apr 30; 51 (2): 454-463.

Background/AimWe aimed to investigate the factors affecting the mortality of patients aged 65 years or older who were hospitalized with the diagnosis of new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19).Materials And MethodsThis is a retrospective study of patients 65 years old or older with COVID-19 who were hospitalized in İstanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty Hospital, between March 11 and May 28, 2020. Demographic, clinical, treatment, and laboratory data were extracted from electronic medical records. We used univariate and multivariate logistic regression methods to explore the risk factors for in-hospital death.ResultsA total of 218 patients (112 men, 106 women) were included, of whom 166 were discharged and 52 died in hospital. With univariate analysis, various clinical features and laboratory variables were found to be significantly different (i.e. P < 0.05). In multivariate logistic regression analysis the following were independently associated with mortality: present malignancy [odds ratio (OR) = 4.817, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.107–20.958, P: 0.036]; dyspnea (OR = 4.652, 95% CI = 1.473–14.688, P: 0.009); neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR; OR = 1.097, 95% CI = 1.012–1.188, P: 0.025); the highest values of C-reactive protein (CRP; OR = 1.006, 95% CI = 1.000–1.012, P: 0.049), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH; OR = 1.002, 95% CI = 1.001–1.004, P: 0.003), and creatinine levels (OR = 1.497, 95% CI = 1.126–1.990, P: 0.006); oxygen saturation (SpO2) values on admission (OR = 0.897, 95% CI = 0.811–0.993, P: 0.036); and azithromycin use (OR = 0.239, 95% CI = 0.065–0.874, P: 0.031).ConclusionThe presence of malignancy; symptoms of dyspnea; high NLR; highest CRP, LDH, and creatinine levels; and low SpO2 on admission predicted mortality. On the other hand, azithromycin use was found to be protective against mortality. Knowing the causes predicting mortality will be important to treat future cases more successfully.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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