157: Can Age Alone Be Used as a Guide for Decision-Making in COVID-19 Patients? A Retrospective Study

INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19) caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has emerged as one of the greatest challenges to humanity in recent history Older people have shown to have poor outcomes in recent studies Our study looks at the characters and outcomes in patients of different age groups admitted to our center METHODS: Our study is a single-center, retrospective, observational study of 471 COVID-19 patients (confirmed with a positive nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV2 RT PCR) admitted to our hospital Patients were divided into 3 groups based on Age (0-45 years, 46-65 years, and >65 years) Demographic characteristics and in-hospital outcomes were compared between these groups STATA was used to perform statistics Statistical significance was assigned at p=65 years (Group C) respectively On comparison of pre-existing comorbidities, patients in group B and group C had a higher incidence of baseline comorbidities (Diabetes, Hypertension, Heart failure, COPD rates were 33 96% vs 43 1%, 55 35% vs 81 12%, 9 01% vs 20 59%, 2 5% vs 11 21% respectively) On comparing in-hospital outcomes, the mean time to mechanical ventilation from admission was 3 25 (±1 31) days, 2 42 (±0 68) days and 2 75 (±0 53) days for group A, B and C respectively 74 (15 71%) patients required intubation during hospitalization of which 7 5%, 32 5%, and 60% belonged to groups A, B, and C respectively The overall mortality rate among intubated patients was 90 54% among which 8 15%, 31 08%, and 60 81% belonged to groups A, B, and C respectively The inhospital mortality rate was 32 48% of which 3 27%, 17 65%, and 79 08% belonged to groups A, B, and C respectively In-hospital mortality rate for group A, B and C were 6 33%, 16 98% and 51 93% respectively (p 65 years of age have higher co-morbidities and worse in-hospital outcomes However, age is not an independent predictor of mortality and each patient should be evaluated individually while making an important treatment decision