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Bernstein CN, Singh H, Murthy SK, Nguyen GC, Benchimol EI, Bitton A, Kuenzig ME, Huang JG, Jones JL, Lee K, Targownik LE, Windsor JW, Mukhtar MS, Tandon P, Kaplan GG. Crohn's and Colitis Canada's 2021 Impact of COVID-19 and Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada: Seniors With IBD. J Can Assoc Gastroenterol 2021; 4:S34-S39. [PMID: 34755037 PMCID: PMC8570427 DOI: 10.1093/jcag/gwab025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The risk of hospitalization and death from Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) increases with age. The extreme elderly have been particularly vulnerable, with those above the age of 80 having a case-fatality rate as high as 15%. Aging of the immune system can lead to impaired inflammatory responses where eradication of an organism such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is inadequate but is exaggerated in such a way as to enhance pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Frailty and comorbidity are both more common in the elderly, and these can enhance the morbidity and mortality from COVID-19. Studies from Northern California and Italy suggest that elderly persons with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) were more likely to acquire SARS-CoV-2 infection than youths with IBD. While the specific impact of age-related comorbidity is less well established among people with IBD who acquire COVID-19, data from the Surveillance Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion (SECURE-IBD) database reported that having two or more chronic illnesses was independently associated with developing severe COVID-19 among people with IBD. Despite having exaggerated auto-inflammatory responses, people with IBD do not appear to have an overall increased risk of developing severe COVID-19 than the general population. However, whether seniors with IBD do worse once they acquire COVID-19 compared with seniors without IBD is not known. The advent of telehealth care has posed an information technology challenge for many seniors with and without IBD. Most persons with IBD have expressed satisfaction with virtual IBD health care (phone or video-based visits). While the elderly may have less robust immune responses to vaccinations, learning from experiences with other vaccination programs, especially influenza, have shown that vaccinating seniors decreases both morbidity and mortality and, in turn, healthcare resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles N Bernstein
- Department of Internal Medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.,IBD Clinical and Research Centre, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | - Harminder Singh
- Department of Internal Medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.,IBD Clinical and Research Centre, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | - Sanjay K Murthy
- Department of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital IBD Centre, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Geoffrey C Nguyen
- Mount Sinai Hospital Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Eric I Benchimol
- SickKids Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Child Health Evaluative Sciences, SickKids Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,ICES, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Paediatrics and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Alain Bitton
- Department of Medicine, McGill University Health Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - M Ellen Kuenzig
- SickKids Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Child Health Evaluative Sciences, SickKids Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - James Guoxian Huang
- SickKids Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jennifer L Jones
- Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Kate Lee
- Crohn's and Colitis Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Laura E Targownik
- Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Joseph W Windsor
- Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.,Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Mariam S Mukhtar
- Department of Internal Medicine, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Parul Tandon
- Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Gilaad G Kaplan
- Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.,Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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