COVID-19 Study of Hospitalized Older Adults
Highlights
- CDC needs data on COVID-19’s effects on hospitalized older adults.
- Abt will compare COVID-19 positive and negative rural hospital patients.
- Results are ongoing.
Older adults are at high risk for contracting novel coronavirus and for developing severe illnesses if infected. To inform policy, CDC needs more data on medical care for hospitalized patients 50 or older in rural health care systems. CDC also needs to compare health outcomes for hospitalized patients who test negative for COVID-19 with those who test positive.
Abt will monitor and describe medical care for hospitalized patients aged ≥50-years old in a rural health care system using electronic medical record data. Abt also will conduct prospective enrollment and follow-up to study hospitalized test-positive study participants and matched test-negative controls. The study will examine serologic indicators of infection, correlates of protection, and patterns of medical care and health outcomes among four age groups (50-64 years, 65-74 years, 75-84 years, and 85+ years old).
Results are ongoing.