Newswise — CLEVELAND (Feb. 9, 7 a.m. ET)—A study led by Case Western Reserve University researchers found that patients with dementia were at a significantly increased risk for COVID-19—and the risk was higher still for African Americans with dementia.
Reviewing electronic health records of 61.9 million adults in the United States, researchers found the risk of contracting COVID-19 was twice as high for patients with dementia than for those without it—while among those with dementia, African Americans had close to three times the risk of being infected with COVID-19 as Caucasians did.
In addition, patients with dementia who contracted COVID-19 had significantly worse outcomes in terms of hospitalizations and deaths than those who had COVID-19 but not dementia.
The study was published Feb. 9 by the peer-reviewed Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the…
