Impact of nursing home characteristics on COVID-19 infections among residents and staff

Abstract

Excess mortality occurred in nursing homes during the SARS-CoV pandemic. This study aimed to identify risk factors for COVID-19 infection and mortality in nursing home residents and staff in Hesse, Germany. A retrospective cohort study of 687 nursing homes was performed. We used T-tests and logistic regressions to quantify the role of nursing homes' size, location, staff qualification, and room occupancy as potential risk factors. The bivariate statistics show that a higher proportion of infected staff and for-profit operation were associated with an increase in infections among residents and staff, while more single rooms and registered nurses showed protective effects. Our model calculations also show that the presence of a higher ratio of registered nurses was a significant protective factor against resident infection (OR: 0.969, p=.002), resident mortality (OR: 0.973, p=.006), and safeguarded staff (OR: 0.979, p=.034). In contrast, more single rooms (OR: 0.993, p=.029) were protective for residents, while increased risk factors included more beds (OR: 1.006, p=.006 for residents' infections, OR: 1.008, p<.001 for mortality) and infected staff (OR: 2.363, p<.001 for residents' infections). For staff, medium population density (OR: 2.322, p=.016) and infected residents (OR: 1.308, p<.001) were associated with elevated risk. Preventing infection outbreaks among residents and staff is crucial to reduce mortality. Strategies include increasing single occupancy rooms, improving staff qualifications, and targeting facilities with lower registered nurse ratios and single-occupancy rooms for inspection.