Preparing for future pandemics: frailty associates with mortality in hospitalised older people during the entire COVID-19 pandemic, a Dutch multicentre cohort study

Aim We aim to investigate how associations of frailty with in-hospital mortality changed throughout the pandemic in older people hospitalised for COVID-19.Findings Older hospitalised COVID-19 patients with frailty had a higher in-hospital mortality risk over the entire course of the pandemic. Older hospitalised COVID-19 patients had a lower in-hospital mortality risk in each subsequent wave, which reflects the effects of improved prevention and treatment options.Message Frailty is a relevant risk factor in all stages of a pandemic, which indicates that frailty is important to consider in prevention and treatment guidelines for future pandemics. Purpose Viral mutations and improved prevention or treatment options may have changed the association of frailty with mortality throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated how associations of frailty with in-hospital mortality changed throughout the pandemic in older people hospitalised for COVID-19.Methods The COVID-OLD study included COVID-19 patients aged >= 70 years hospitalised during the first (early 2020), second (late 2020), third (late 2021) or fourth wave (early 2022). Based on the clinical frailty scale, patients were categorised as fit (1-3), pre-frail (4-5) or frail (6-9). Associations of frailty with in-hospital mortality were assessed with pairwise comparisons with fit as reference category and modelled using binary logistic regression adjusted for age and sex.Results This study included 2362 patients (mean age 79.7 years, 60% men). In the first wave, in-hospital mortality was 46% in patients with frailty and 27% in fit patients. In-hospital mortality decreased in each subsequent wave to 25% in patients with frailty and 11% in fit patients in the fourth wave. After adjustments, an overall higher risk of in-hospital mortality was found in frail (OR 2.26, 95% CI: 1.66-3.07) and pre-frail (OR 1.73, 95% CI: 1.27-2.35) patients compared to fit patients, which did not change over time (p for interaction = 0.74).Conclusions Frailty remained associated with a higher risk of in-hospital mortality throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic, although overall in-hospital mortality rates decreased. Frailty therefore remains a relevant risk factor in all stages of a pandemic and is important to consider in prevention and treatment guidelines for future pandemics.