Clinical Profiles and Mortality of COVID‐19 Inpatients with Parkinson's Disease in Germany

Scherbaum, Raphael; Kwon, Eun Hae; Richter, Daniel; Bartig, Dirk; Gold, Ralf; Krogias, Christos; Tönges, Lars

BACKGROUND: Comprehensive, nationwide data regarding Parkinson's disease (PD) hospitalizations, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in‐hospital frequency, and COVID‐19‐associated inpatient mortality during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic are not available. OBJECTIVE: To provide a nationwide analysis on hospitalized PD patients in Germany and evaluate the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic. METHODS: We conducted a cross‐sectional study using an administrative claims database covering 1468 hospitals and 5,210,432 patient hospitalizations including a total of 30,872 COVID‐19(+) cases between January 16 and May 15, 2020. RESULTS: Compared to 2019, hospitalizations for PD transiently decreased by up to 72.7% in 2020. COVID‐19 frequency was significantly higher in the population of 64,434 PD patients (693 being COVID‐19(+)) than in non‐PD patients (1.1% vs. 0.6%, P < 0.001), especially in subjects with advanced age (≥ 65 years). Regarding established COVID‐19 risk comorbidities, COVID‐19(+) inpatients with PD showed higher incidences than non‐PD COVID‐19(+) subjects, particularly hypertension and chronic kidney disease. Advanced age and male sex were significantly more frequent in COVID‐19(+) than in COVID‐19(−) PD patients. The COVID‐19 inpatient mortality rate was much higher in PD patients than in non‐PD patients (35.4% vs. 20.7%, P < 0.001), especially in patients aged 75–79 years. Of note, overall inpatient mortality of PD patients was significantly higher in 2020 than in 2019 (5.7% vs. 4.9%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: PD inpatients are more frequently affected by COVID‐19 and suffer from increased COVID‐19‐associated mortality in comparison to non‐PD patients. More comprehensive studies are needed to assess the significance of associated comorbidities for COVID‐19 risk and mortality in PD. © 2021 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society