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The impact of dementia, frailty and care home characteristics on SARS-CoV-2 incidence in a national cohort of Welsh care home residents during a period of high community prevalence

Chris Emmerson Orcid Logo, Joe Hollinghurst, Laura North, Rich Fry Orcid Logo, Ashley Akbari Orcid Logo, Ciarán Humphreys, Michael Gravenor Orcid Logo, Ronan Lyons Orcid Logo

Age and Ageing, Volume: 51, Issue: 12

Swansea University Authors: Joe Hollinghurst, Laura North, Rich Fry Orcid Logo, Ashley Akbari Orcid Logo, Michael Gravenor Orcid Logo, Ronan Lyons Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1093/ageing/afac250

Abstract

Backgrounddementia may increase care home residents’ risk of COVID-19, but there is a lack of evidence on this effect and on interactions with individual and care home-level factors.Methodswe created a national cross-sectional retrospective cohort of care home residents in Wales for 1 September to 3...

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Published in: Age and Ageing
ISSN: 0002-0729 1468-2834
Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2022
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62132
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Abstract: Backgrounddementia may increase care home residents’ risk of COVID-19, but there is a lack of evidence on this effect and on interactions with individual and care home-level factors.Methodswe created a national cross-sectional retrospective cohort of care home residents in Wales for 1 September to 31 December 2020. Risk factors were analysed using multi-level logistic regression to model the likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality.Resultsthe cohort included 9,571 individuals in 673 homes. Dementia was diagnosed in 5,647 individuals (59%); 1,488 (15.5%) individuals tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. We estimated the effects of age, dementia, frailty, care home size, proportion of residents with dementia, nursing and dementia services, communal space and region. The final model included the proportion of residents with dementia (OR for positive test 4.54 (95% CIs 1.55–13.27) where 75% of residents had dementia compared to no residents with dementia) and frailty (OR 1.29 (95% CIs 1.05–1.59) for severe frailty compared with no frailty). Analysis suggested 76% of the variation was due to setting rather than individual factors. Additional analysis suggested severe frailty and proportion of residents with dementia was associated with all-cause mortality, as was dementia diagnosis. Mortality analyses were challenging to interpret.Discussionwhilst individual frailty increased the risk of COVID-19 infection, dementia was a risk factor at care home but not individual level. These findings suggest whole-setting interventions, particularly in homes with high proportions of residents with dementia and including those with low/no individual risk factors may reduce the impact of COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19, dementia, care homes, SARS-CoV-2, frailty, older people
College: Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
Funders: This work was supported by the Con-COV team funded by the Medical Research Council (grant number: MR/V028367/1). This work was supported by Health Data Research (HDR) UK, which receives its funding from HDR UK Ltd (HDR-9006) funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Department of Health and Social Care (England), Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the Wellcome Trust. This work was supported by the ADR (Administrative Data Research) Wales programme of work. The ADR Wales programme of work is aligned to the priority themes as identified in the Welsh Government’s national strategy: Prosperity for All. ADR Wales brings together data science experts at Swansea University Medical School, staff from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) at Cardiff University and specialist teams within the Welsh Government to develop new evidence, which supports Prosperity for All by using the SAIL Databank at Swansea University, to link and analyse anonymised data. ADR Wales is part of the Economic and Social Research Council (part of UK Research and Innovation) funded Administrative Data Research UK (grant ES/S007393/1). This work was supported by the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre, funded by Health and Care Research Wales.
Issue: 12

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