A Longitudinal, Clinical, and Spatial Epidemiologic Analysis of a Large COVID-19 Long-Term Care Home Outbreak.
J Am Med Dir Assoc
; 22(10): 2003-2008.e2, 2021 10.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1380701
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
COVID-19 has had devastating effects on long-term care homes across much of the world, and especially within Canada, with more than 50% of the mortality from COVID-19 in 2020 in these homes. Understanding the way in which the virus spreads within these homes is critical to preventing further outbreaks.DESIGN:
Retrospective chart review. SETTINGS ANDPARTICIPANTS:
Long-term care home residents and staff in Ontario, Canada.METHODS:
We conducted a longitudinal study of a large long-term care home COVID-19 outbreak in Ontario, Canada, using electronic medical records, public health records, staff assignments, and resident room locations to spatially map the outbreak through the facility.RESULTS:
By analyzing the outbreak longitudinally, we were able to draw 3 importantconclusions:
(1) 84.5% had typical COVID-19 symptoms and only 15.5% of residents had asymptomatic infection; (2) there was a high attack rate of 85.8%, which appeared to be explained by a high degree of interconnectedness within the home exacerbated by staffing shortages; and (3) clustering of infections within multibedded rooms was common. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS Low rates of asymptomatic infection suggest that symptom-based screening in residents remains very important for detecting outbreaks, a high degree of interconnectedness explains the high attack rate, and there is a need for improved guidance for homes with multibedded rooms on optimizing resident room movement to mitigate spread of COVID-19 in long-term care homes.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Long-Term Care
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
J Am Med Dir Assoc
Journal subject:
History of Medicine
/
Medicine
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS