COVID's indirect effects may have affected people with Alzheimer's and dementia more than others

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COVID's indirect effects may have affected people with Alzheimer's and dementia more than others

Tue, 2022-03-01 11:33 — mike kraft

Excess Deaths Twice as High for Dementia Patients During Pandemic COVID's indirect effects may have affected people with Alzheimer's and dementia more Judy George medpagetoday

Excess mortality was twice as high for older adults with dementia in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic than it was for those without dementia, an analysis of all Medicare enrollees showed.

From March through December 2020, adjusted mortality was 25.7% higher (95% CI 25.3-26.2) among older adults with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias than it was during a similar period in 2019, reported Lauren Gilstrap, MD, MPH, of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and co-authors.

A woman visiting her mother separated by a window during COVID lockdown, both have their hands on the glass.

Excess mortality was twice as high for older adults with dementia in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic than it was for those without dementia, an analysis of all Medicare enrollees showed.

Among Medicare enrollees without Alzheimer's and related dementias, adjusted mortality was 12.4% higher (95% CI 12.1-12.6) over the same periods, the researchers wrote in JAMA Neurology.

"We found that enrollees with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias were at higher risk of dying in 2020 compared with 2019, either directly of COVID-19 or because of premature death owing to disruptions in health care," Gilstrap and colleagues wrote. ...

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