Covid causes health problems in 1/3 of people over 65

New health problems developed by people over 65 years old after recovering from SARS-CoV-2 infection are as common as the sequelae and persistent symptoms of the so-called ‘Long Covid’.

The conclusion is from a recent study published by ‘The British Medical Journal’, which revealed that a third of elderly people with Covid-19 in 2020 needed medical attention to treat at least one new health problem, after recovering from the disease.

+ Covid-19: “Long covid” reaches 10% to 20% of those infected and is “unpredictable and debilitating”

Those responsible for the study indicate that the new health problems reported by the elderly cover a diverse field with effects on different organs and systems. The appearance of new health problems in the heart, liver, lungs or kidneys stands out. Mental health-related problems are also frequently mentioned.

It’s true that the scientific evidence on long-term illness is mounting, but this research is the first to only focus on people aged 65 and over, which offers a better understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 affects this age group. To do this, we analyzed data extracted from the health insurance of 133,366 Americans over the age of 65 who tested positive for Covid-19 as of April 1, 2020.

Study leaders compared these people with three groups without Covid-19 in 2019, 2020 and a final group diagnosed with a viral lower respiratory tract illness. Once this process was carried out, each of the cases studied was documented with a focus on the diagnosis of ‘Long Covid’ or new health problems, which occurred up to 21 days after the positive test.

Based on this, 32% of seniors with Covid-19 in 2020 received medical care for complaining of at least one new persistent health issue in the aforementioned 21-day period. An 11% increase over the control group.

Patients with Covid-19 were more likely to have respiratory failure (7.55 more per 100 people), fatigue (5.66 more per 100 people), hypertension (4.43 more per 100 people) and mental health (2.5 more per 100 people).

The study’s findings further indicate that the odds of developing new health problems after infection with SARS-CoV-2 were higher in men, African Americans, and anyone over 75 years of age.

“These findings further highlight the wide range of important sequelae following acute SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the authors comment in a statement.

According to the same note, “understanding the magnitude of the risk of major clinical sequelae can improve the diagnosis and treatment of people with sequelae after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection”, they conclude.