COVID-19 infection at the beginning of the pandemic with no fatalities at a Colombian nursing home.

Abstract

Introduction: There was an outbreak of COVID-19 during the first months of the pandemic in an underserved geriatric institution, which had no fatalities. This study aimed to describe the detection, isolation, and mitigation process of the residents infected by COVID-19. We also assessed factors associated with the infection among 252 institutionalized older adults.

Methods: The setting was a Geriatric Hospital and Nursing Home San Miguel, the larger 1stlevel geriatric hospital and nursing home, in Cali, Colombia. We made a cross-sectional analysis of residents' characteristics by infection status, no-infected vs. infected.

Results: This population had a median age of 80 years (range 55 to 103); 50% were women, and 84 (33.3%) were infected, but none died and did not go to the ICU or were referred to a higher-level hospital. In a multivariate logistic regression model, infection was associated with age, female gender, lower grip strength performance, and higher clinical frailty scale score. There was a significant interaction effect between age and the clinical frailty scale on infection, indicating that frailer was associated with infection among those at ancient ages (≥80). Conclusions: All institutionalized older adults with COVID-19 infection in this geriatric institution survived. It is likely related to appropriate general medical and nursing management, including well-controlled comorbidities, individualized interdisciplinary rehabilitation, attention, and support.