Effects of Comorbidities on the Elderly Patients with COVID-19: Clinical Characteristics of Elderly Patients Infected with COVID-19 from Sichuan, China

Objectives The co-occurrence of chronic diseases in the elderly is a common problem. However, the relationship between comorbidities and the prognosis of elderly patients with COVID-19 was not clear. This study was supposed to describe the clinical characteristics of elderly patients with COVID-19 infection from Sichuan province and the effects of comorbidity. Design A retrospective study. Settings and participants COVID-19 patients from Public Health Clinical Center of Chengdu between December 16, 2019 and February 26, 2020 were included in this study. Patients were divided into elderly group (>= 60 years old) and non-elderly group (< 60 years old). Results Elderly patients with COVID-19 indicated relatively higher proportion of comorbidities, and the most common were atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (56.5%), hypertension (43.5%) and chronic pulmonary disease (21.7%). The proportion of severe cases was higher in elderly group than that in non-elderly group (73.9% and 42.2%, respectively, P=0.012). During hospitalization, elderly patients indicated relatively higher proportion of complications, such as shock (21.7%), respiratory failure (21.7%). The proportion of patients with a decreased number of CD8+ lymphocytes (82.6%) and B lymphocytes (77.8%) in elderly patients was significantly higher than that in non-elderly group (48.9% and 44.8%, respectively). All 3 deaths were elderly patients with comorbidities and the cell counts of T lymphocyte subsets, B and NK cells of them were significantly decreased at admission. Conclusions Elderly patients with COVID-19 had a high proportion of severe cases and comorbidities, more likely to show low immune function, and indicate higher proportion of complications.