Association of frailty with mortality in older inpatients with Covid-19: a cohort study

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has disproportionately affected older people. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper to investigate whether frailty is associated with all-cause mortality in older hospital inpatients, with COVID-19. DESIGN: Cohort study. SETTING: Secondary care acute hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Participants included are 677 consecutive inpatients aged 65 years and over. METHODS: Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the association of frailty with mortality. Frailty was assessed at baseline, according to the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), where higher categories indicate worse frailty. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity, previous admissions and acute illness severity. RESULTS: Six hundred and sixty-four patients were classified according to CFS. Two hundred and seventy-one died, during a mean follow-up of 34.3 days. Worse frailty at baseline was associated with increased mortality risk, even after full adjustment (P = 0.004). Patients with CFS 4 and CFS 5 had non-significant increased mortality risks, compared to those with CFS 1-3. Patients with CFS 6 had a 2.13-fold (95% CI 1.34-3.38) and those with CFS 7-9 had a 1.79-fold (95% CI 1.12-2.88) increased mortality risk, compared to those with CFS 1-3 (P = 0.001 and 0.016, respectively). Older age, male sex and acute illness severity were also associated with increased mortality risk. CONCLUSIONS: Frailty is associated with all-cause mortality risk in older inpatients with COVID-19.