Nursing Home COVID-19 Survivors Do Not Face Increased Risk of Death After Recovery: Study

Severe malnutrition and disability were better predictors of mortality, while getting the COVID-19 vaccine was linked to a better chance of survival.

After nursing homes were hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic several years ago, some health experts anticipated that even surviving early COVID infections would lead to worse long-term outcomes for nursing home residents. However, the findings of a new study suggests that is not the case.

In a report published in the medical journal BMC Geriatrics on August 1, French researchers indicate that surviving a COVID-19 infection during the first wave of the pandemic did not increase nursing home residents’ risk of dying in the next two years. Instead, it appears to have offered some immunity during the next wave of the pandemic.

U.S. Nursing Homes Hit Hard by COVID

Nursing homes were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with high rates of infections and deaths. Although the pandemic has largely subsided, data suggests that nursing homes continue to be plagued by a lack of staffing, high turnover rates, and a lack of infectious disease protocols, which could have prevented many of the deadly COVID-19 infection outbreaks.

A recent study published by researchers from Pennsylvania State University indicates nursing homes still lack infection control measures four years after the outbreak began, such as personal protective equipment and early isolation for infected patients.

Research published in 2022 indicates the high rates of deaths in nursing homes were linked to widespread staffing shortages in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Early Infections May Have Granted Protection

In this new study, French researchers from the Paris Cité University, led by Manuel Sanchez, studied the value of nursing home residents having a COVID-19 infection during the first wave and how that related to an increased risk of death within the next two years.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study in three nursing homes in France among 315 nursing home residents who survived the first COVID-19 wave from March to May 2020. Overall, 35% contracted COVID-19 and 9% were hospitalized for it.

Nursing home residents infected with COVID during the first wave of the pandemic often became frailer and more malnourished due to the side effects of the infection. Researchers thought this would lead to a higher rate of death within two years of the infection.

However, after analyzing the data, Sanchez’s team discovered nursing home residents who survived a coronavirus infection during the first wave faced no greater risk of death within the next two years than those who avoided an infection. Instead, factors like older age, severe disability, and severe malnutrition were more likely to lead to an increased death risk within the two years after infection.

The researchers determined the first wave offered some immunity to nursing home residents who became infected early on. This helped them to have a lower likelihood of dying in the next two years, as did getting the vaccine.

“Having survived a COVID-19 infection during the (first COVID-19 pandemic wave) did not affect subsequent 2-year survival in older adults living in NHs,” Sanchez’s team concluded. “Severe malnutrition and disability remained strong predictor of mortality in this population, whereas vaccination was associated to better survival.”