Targeting the most severely affected in the COVID-19 pandemic: older adults' medications and other crucial factors in large nationwide data (Studier av de mest utsatta i COVID-19 pandemin: äldre personers läkemedel och andra avgörande faktorer i stora registerdata)

We urgently need research on the most severely affected group in the COVID-19 pandemic - older adults. In Sweden, 90% of the deaths have occurred in people aged >70 years. Still, we know very little about the relative importance of different risk and protective factors among older adults including the much debated effect of different medications. To address this major knowledge gap, we will provide results based on large unselected longitudinal nationwide data. We aim to 1) Show outcomes of medication treatment among older COVID-19 patients; and 2) Identify risk profiles for severe outcomes of COVID-19 among older adults. We will analyse a database of several Swedish registers of people aged >65 years (n≈2.6 million). Adjusted regression models (e.g. Cox proportional hazard, propensity matching, nested case-control design) will be used to estimate independent risk of outcomes (e.g. hospitalisation and mortality) of different factors (e.g. gender, age, socioeconomic status, place of residence, residential setting (nursing home/own home), eldercare, frailty, multimorbidity, polypharmacy, dementia, depression, diabetes, lung disease, cancer and cardiovascular diseases). Also use of medications (e.g. ACE inhibitors, statins and NSAIDs) will be analysed. The findings will contribute to mitigating the effects of this pandemic as well as future ones. Thus, long-term advantages are expected in increased preparedness and prevention, including for the seasonal influenza. Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi; Geriatrik