Evaluation of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 applying to Ankara City Hospital Home Health Services Unitt

Introduction and Purpose: In December 2019, a new coronavirus caused a serises of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization (WHO) named the disease "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)" and the etiologic agent named " Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)". Elderly individuals are known to have worse outcomes for COVID-19 compared to the general population. In this report, we aimed to evaluate the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 who admitted to the Ankara City Hospital Home Health Services Unit, and to evaluate the relationship of these characteristics with the process of COVID-19 infection. Method: Patients admitted/assigned to Ankara City Hospital Home Health Services Unit with the diagnosis of COVID-19 between 11 March and 31 December 2020 were included in this cross-sectional study. Sociodemographic characteristics of the patients, characteristics related to health and well-being, information about COVID-19 processes and results, and laboratory results were recorded through a data collection form consisting of 4 sections and 25 questions. IBM SPSS 26.0 package program was used in the analysis. Results: 62 people were included in the study. It was determined that elderly individuals were diagnosed with COVID-19 later than younger individuals (p=0.02). The time to diagnosis was longer in the presence of chronic disease, multimorbidity, and those using multiple drugs (respectively p=0,011; p:0,009; p=0,014). The manifestation of the COVID-19 picture changes with age; Sore throat (p=0,003) and loss of taste-smell (p=0,025) are significantly more common in people under 65 years of age, older patients show more atypical and subtle clinical presentations such as weakness/fatigue (p=0,033), and these symptoms are less common. it was found that it persisted for longer periods in general (p<0,001). It was observed that the symptoms of patients with a history of contact took longer to completely regress (p=0,033). For the elderly population, if there was concomitant diabetes mellitus (p=0,018), if the patient had complaints of dyspnea (p=0,031), weakness/fatigue (p=0,05), the clinical severity of COVID-19 was analyzed to be higher. Conclusion: The clinical signs of elderly individuals in SARS-CoV-2 infection may be more subtle, unlike the general population. Considering COVID-19 in the differential diagnosis is important for early diagnosis in patients who present with complaints such as weakness/fatigue, loss of appetite, falling, and general condition disorder. Thus, mortality and morbidity can be reduced. Regardless of the complaints of elderly individuals, the application period was found to be longer, and therefore, it was observed that their diagnosis was delayed. It has been determined that this may lead to exacerbation of the clinic. It has been concluded that there are symptoms that can persist for a long time, such as weakness/fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle-joint pain after COVID-19. This can reduce the quality of life. It has been observed that patients with known diabetes mellitus and hypertension have a poor prognosis and need more intensive treatment. The presence of weakness/fatigue and shortness of breath may indicate that the infection will progress to a severe picture. Therefore, more caution should be exercised in patients presenting with the symptoms mentioned. Key words: Elderly, COVID-19, Home Health Care, clinical course, prognostic factors