Abstract
ObjectivesDespite the numerous studies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), data regarding the impact of pre-existing diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) on the susceptibility to and outcome of COVID-19 are limited. We aimed to determine whether patients with AD/PD had a higher likelihood of contracting COVID-19 and experiencing worse outcomes.MethodsData from patients with confirmed diagnoses of COVID-19 (n = 8,070) from January to June 2020 and control participants (n = 121,050) who were randomly selected to match the patients on the basis of age and sex were extracted from the Korean National Health Insurance Database. Pre-existing diagnoses of AD and PD were identified based on medical claim codes. The associations of pre-existing AD or PD with contracting COVID-19, developing severe COVID-19 and dying due to COVID-19 were examined using a logistic regression model. The participants’ age, sex, income, comorbidity score, and history of hypertension/diabetes were assessed as covariates.ResultsCOVID-19 cases were more likely to have a pre-existing AD diagnosis (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.79–2.50, P-value < 0.001) than controls. COVID-19 cases were more likely to have a pre-existing PD diagnosis than controls, although this estimate did not quite reach statistical significance (aOR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.00–2.00, P-value = 0.054). Pre-existing AD was related to severe disease and mortality from COVID-19 (aOR = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.64–2.98; aOR = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.00–2.00). Pre-existing PD was not associated with mortality (aOR = 1.54, 95% CI = 0.75–3.16) but was associated with severe disease (aOR = 2.89, 95% CI = 1.56–5.35).ConclusionWe found that COVID-19 infection was significantly associated with a pre-existing diagnosis of AD but not with a pre-existing diagnosis of PD. Patients with pre-existing AD had higher odds of developing severe COVID-19 and dying. Pre-existing PD was only associated with a higher odds of developing severe COVID-19.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2), has affected 224 countries, with more than 151,000,000 confirmed cases globally (World Health Oroganizations [World Health Organization (WHO)], 2021)
Neurodegenerative diseases are a heterogeneous group of diseases that are characterized by the progressive loss of neuronal cells of the central or peripheral nervous systems, including vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and various tauopathies (Yu et al, 2021)
It is necessary to investigate whether people living with AD or PD are at greater risk of a severe clinical course and unfavorable outcomes of COVID-19
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2), has affected 224 countries, with more than 151,000,000 confirmed cases globally (World Health Oroganizations [WHO], 2021). A recent cohort study used the UK Biobank to examine the associations of several risk factors, including all-cause dementia, AD and PD in particular, with COVID-19 positivity, severity (hospitalization), and death (Tahira et al, 2021). Another cohort study comprising 363 patients with AD and 259 patients with PD selected from a sample of 3,732 individuals concluded that inpatients with AD have a higher risk of 28-day mortality from COVID-19 (Fathi et al, 2021). An observational case series study investigating the frequency and mortality of COVID-19 among patients with a previous diagnosis of AD and FTD suggested that living in care homes was the most relevant factor for a higher risk of COVID-19 infection and death, with AD patients having a greater risk than those with FTD (Matias-Guiu et al, 2020)
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