The Executive and Deputy Editors of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) chose the study “COVID-19 is Not Over and Age is Not Enough: Using Frailty for Prognostication in Hospitalized Patients”, produced by the Geriatrics Discipline, of the Clinical Medicine Department at Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP), as the journal's best publication in the area and granted it the “2021 Best COVID Paper Award”.
The award ceremony was held during the 2022 American Congress of Geriatrics, in the month of May, in the United States, with the presence of Dr. Márlon Juliano Romero Aliberti, researcher at the Laboratory of Medical Investigation in Aging (LIM/66) at Hospital das Clínicas (HC) at FMUSP, who represented all 48 professionals involved in the research.
“This award recognizes the leadership role that our health institution played in combating the Covid-19 pandemic and values our ability to produce quality science, even in adverse situations. It also praises the fight against ageism that was so present in the pandemic ", said Dr. Marlon Aliberti.
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, with the special structure created at the Central Institute of HCFMUSP, fully dedicated to caring for patients affected by the most aggressive form of Covid-19, a team of doctors from the Geriatrics Service, including assistants and residents, led by Professors Marlon Aliberti and Thiago Avelino-Silva, set out to review all medical records of hospitalized patients aged 50 or over, with the aim of correlating conditions prior to infection with its short- and medium-term evolution, both in terms of mortality and functional characteristics of the survivors. “The analysis of the data allowed fundamental conclusions for a better understanding of the severity of Covid-19 among the elderly and, consequently, was highlighted with the publication in JAGS”, declared Prof. Wilson Jacob Filho, Head of the Geriatrics Discipline of the Department of Internal Medicine at FMUSP.
Dr. Márlon Aliberti said that “during the pandemic there was a lot of ageism, prejudice towards the elderly, due to their age and degree of risk for Covid-19, in addition to the fact that, in many places, the elderly did not have access to the best treatment available because of their advanced age". The study shows that chronological age alone does not determine the prognosis of Covid-19. It showed that frailty can identify elderly people of similar ages with very different risks of death from the coronavirus.
To understand the risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection, it’s necessary to have a more comprehensive view that integrates information on comorbidities (presence of chronic diseases), acute clinical severity (data such as blood pressure, fever, mental status associated with the infection) and frailty (degree of independence for activities of daily living, level of physical activity, fatigue before Covid-19) of the patient.
Prof. Wilson Jacob Filho, said that the study, included in the CO-FRAIL Project of the Geriatrics Service of the Hospital das Clínicas of FMUSP (SGHC-FMUSP) and supported by the COVID HCFMUSP Study Group, “was identified by the international literature as a fundamental milestone in the demonstration that the functional status prior to infection is a much more adequate prognostic determinant than the chronological age of the patient”.
The 2021 Best COVID Paper Award recognizes important and innovative work that is likely to make an impact in the field of clinical care for the geriatric population.
Dr. Márlon Aliberti said: “it’s worth dedicating yourself to important causes that value the lives of our patients. A work built by the efforts of so many HCFMUSP professionals was able to promote a better discussion on resource allocation and prognosis in various parts of the world. There was a lot of appreciation for the initiatives carried out in our institution”.
Access the full research produced by FMUSP researchers at: https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jgs.17146
