Mortality and characteristics of older people dying with COVID‑19 in Lombardy nursing homes, Italy: An observational cohort study

Background: the aim of the study was to describe the epidemiological characteristics of nursing homes (nhs) residents infected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars‑cov‑2) infection and to compute the related case‑fatality rate. materials and methods: the outcomes were mortality and case‑fatality rate with related epidemiological characteristics (age, sex, comorbidity, and frailty). results: during the covid‑19 outbreak lasted from march 1 to may 7, 2020, 330 residents died in fondazione don gnocchi nhs bringing the mortality rate to 27% with a dramatic increase compared to the same period of 2019, when it was 7.5%. naso/oropharyngeal swabs resulted positive for covid‑19 in 315 (71%) of the 441of the symptomatic/exposed residents tested. the covid‑19 population was 75% female, with a 17% overall fatality rate and sex‑specific fatality rates of 19% and 13% for females and males, respectively. fifty‑six percent of deaths presented sars‑cov‑2‑associated pneumonia, 15% cardiovascular, and 29% miscellaneous pathologies. conclusion: patients’ complexity and frailty might influence sars‑cov‑2 infection case‑fatality rate estimates. a covid‑19 register is needed to study covid‑19 frail patients’ epidemiology and characteristics.