The impact of COVID-19 on the elderly population: a narrative review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18227/hd.v4i1.7532Keywords:
COVID-19, coronavírus, elderly, old-age, mortalityAbstract
Introduction: The coronavirus pandemic began in December in the city of Wuhan, China and, since then, studies have correlated the negative outcome of COVID-19 in the elderly. Therefore, the objective of this review is to assess the impact that this disease has on these people. Methods: This study is a narrative review perfomed based on the search for the terms “COVID-19”, “Coronavirus” and “mortality” correlated with “elderly” or “old-age” and their respective correspondentes in Portuguese, in LILACS, ScienceDirect, SciELO and PubMed database. After screening through a temporal filter of articles published between December 2019 and April 2020, 47 articles were selected for analysis and research development. Development: SARS-CoV-2 has the following risk factors: age ≥ 60 years, male gender and comorbidities, being rarely observed in children. Immune aging is intrinsically related to the severity of the disease in the elderly, in addition to favoring atypical manifestations of infectious diseases. The clinical presentation of COVID-19 is: fever, dry cough, dyspnea, chest pain, fatigue and myalgia and its variants. However, as a result of social isolation measures, an increase in cases of anxiety and depression can also be observed, especially in the elderly. There are currently no vaccines or specific treatment for COVID-19, so the treatment employed has been supportive. Conclusion: The elderly are considered a risk group for COVID-19, in addition to having a more unfavorable prognosis when compared to young adults. In addition, COVID-19 has an impact on the mental health of the elderly due to social isolation.
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