- Published
- 10 February 2024
- Journal article
Analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on Scotland's care-homes from March 2020 to October 2021: National linked data cohort analysis
- Authors
- Source
- Age and Ageing
Full text
Abstract
Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on long-term care residents remains of wide interest, but most analyses focus on the initial wave of infections.
Objective: To examine change over time in: (i) The size, duration, classification and pattern of care-home outbreaks of COVID-19 and associated mortality and (ii) characteristics associated with an outbreak.
Design: Retrospective observational cohort study using routinely-collected data.
Setting: All adult care-homes in Scotland (1,092 homes, 41,299 places).
Methods: Analysis was undertaken at care-home level, over three periods. Period (P)1 01/03/2020-31/08/2020; P201/09/2020-31/05/2021 and P3 01/06/2021–31/10/2021. Outcomes were the presence and characteristics of outbreaks and mortality within the care-home. Cluster analysis was used to compare the pattern of outbreaks. Logistic regression examined care-home characteristics associated with outbreaks.
Results: In total 296 (27.1%) care-homes had one outbreak, 220 (20.1%) had two, 91 (8.3%) had three, and 68 (6.2%) had four or more. There were 1,313 outbreaks involving residents: 431 outbreaks in P1, 559 in P2 and 323 in P3. The COVID-19 mortality rate per 1,000 beds fell from 45.8 in P1, to 29.3 in P2, and 3.5 in P3. Larger care-homes were much more likely to have an outbreak, but associations between size and outbreaks were weaker in later periods.
Conclusions: COVID-19 mitigation measures appear to have been beneficial, although the impact on residents remained severe until early 2021. Care-home residents, staff, relatives and providers are critical groups for consideration and involvement in future pandemic planning.
Rights
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. This is an Open Access ar ticle distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite as
Burton, J., McMinn, M., Vaughan, J., Nightingale, G., Fleuriot, J. & Guthrie, B. 2024, 'Analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on Scotland's care-homes from March 2020 to October 2021: National linked data cohort analysis', Age and ageing, 53(2), pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afae015