Study Shows Senior Patients Hospitalized for RSV Have Worse Outcomes Than Those With Flu, UTI, or Fracture

A new study found that adults 65 and older hospitalized for RSV have “higher rates of poor outcomes such as certain heart conditions, longer hospital stays, transfer to an intensive care unit (ICU), and 30-day death rates than patients hospitalized with influenza, [UTI], or fracture.” CIDRAP has the news.

The research team “obtained hospital discharge summaries for patients 65 and older who were treated for the four conditions.” They noted “cardiovascular events for up to 1 year post-discharge in 18.5% of RSV patients, compared with 17.7% for flu, 12.1% for UTI, and 8.4% for fracture. In matched analyses, RSV hospitalization was tied to more subsequent heart failure than the other three conditions, both in patients with and without preexisting heart conditions.”

The ”rate of atrial fibrillation was also higher in RSV patients, although it depended on preexisting heart conditions and which group of patients they were compared against. RSV patients were also 50% to more than three times more likely to be transferred to intensive care and had a 50% to quadruple higher rate of mortality.” Patients hospitalized with RSV had a “58% higher risk of 30-day mortality than those with flu, 49% higher than for those with UTI, and four times higher than for those with for fracture. For ICU admission, it was 48% higher, 3.6 times higher, and 2.6 times higher, respectively. And hospital stays were roughly a day longer for RSV than for the other three conditions.”

The study authors suggested that “vaccine recommendations should be extended to all adults aged 65 years and older.”