Objective: To investigate the Covid-19 mortality in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.
Background: PD patients may be at increased risk of Covid-19 mortality due to the nature of their disease or underlying conditions. There is no consensus on the difference between Covid-19 mortality of PD patients and the general population; However, advanced age and hypertension (HTN) may act as some important risk factors.
Method: The information of 12909 Covid-19 patients who were hospitalized during the last eleven months were collected from the data depository of two referral university-hospitals. Eighty-seven of these patients were diagnosed with PD, and thirty-one of these PD patients died because of Covid-19. 2132 other deaths occurred in these centers, related to Covid-19 of non-PD patients. The Covid-19 mortality of PD patients and the general population (other hospitalized patients) were calculated and compared. Moreover, O2 saturation, the most frequent Covid-19 symptom, the most frequent underlying conditions of these two groups were evaluated. Fisher exact test, Chi-square test, and principle component analysis were used for statistical analysis.
Results: The mortality among PD patients and other hospitalized patients was 35.6% and 19.8%. respectively, and the difference between the mortality of these two groups found to be statistically significant (p-value<0.01). The mean age of PD patients who passed away was 77.06±7.46, and it was not significantly different from that of alive PD patients (p-value>0.05). Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as an underlying condition was more frequent in deceased PD patients compared to alive PD patients, and this difference was found to be statistically significant (p-value<0.01). Multivariate analyses demonstrated no difference between deceased and alive patients, patients with and without HTN and AD, and male and female patients considering age, duration of hospitalization, and O2 saturation.
Conclusion: PD patients possess a higher rate of Covid-19 mortality in comparison with other patients hospitalized for Covid-19. PD pathophysiology, advanced age, and underlying conditions, including AD, may play an essential role in such an outcome.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
M. Salari, M. Etemadifar, S. Tehrani Fateh, Z. Aminzade. Parkinson’s disease patients may be at higher risk of Covid-19 mortality [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2021; 36 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/parkinsons-disease-patients-may-be-at-higher-risk-of-covid-19-mortality/. Accessed May 9, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2021
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/parkinsons-disease-patients-may-be-at-higher-risk-of-covid-19-mortality/