Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment in a Mexican Long-term Care Facility During a COVID-19 Outbreak

Objective: The Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly affected long-term care facilities worldwide. In Mexico, there are no studies that assess the impact between COVID-19 and the comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). This article aims to investigate the effect on the geriatric assessment before and after COVID-19 infection had in residents of a long-term care facility, as well as the factors that influenced the virus transmission and its associated mortality.Materials and Methods: This is a prospective observational study that included 90 older adults during an outbreak of COVID-19 in a long-term care facility in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Participants' geriatric assessments were designed using their history records, comorbidities and Barthel index, Folstein's mini-mental state examination, geriatric depression scale, mini nutritional assessment, and polypharmacy.Results: When comparing the CGA before and after the COVID-19, Barthel index median was 90 vs 57.7 (p=0.001), the mini-mental state examination median was 23 vs 19 (p=0.001), the geriatric depression scale median was 4 vs 5 (p=0.007), the weight mean was 59.63 vs 56.95 (p=0.001), the body mass index mean was 23.9 vs 23.19 (p=0.009), and the mini nutritional assessment median was 23 vs 21.5 (p=0.001). Mortality in positive residents of COVID-19 was significantly higher in those with a polypharmacy >8 and mini-mental state examination <10 points.Conclusion: This study highlights the vulnerability of older adults to COVID-19 infection associated with high mortality and their global deterioration in the post-infection stage. Likewise, mortality in our population was higher in those with polypharmacy and cognitive impairment. These results guide us to create preventive measures that improve the quality and survival of geriatric COVID-19 patients.