Causes of mortality among adults with Down syndrome before and after the COVID‐19 pandemic in Spain

Background The life expectancy of people with Down syndrome (DS) is limited by Alzheimer's disease (AD)‐related deaths, mainly due to respiratory infections. The emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic could have changed known, past trends in mortality in this population. We analysed the differences...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of intellectual disability research 2024-02, Vol.68 (2), p.128-139
Main Authors: Sánchez Moreno, Beatriz, Adán‐Lirola, Laura, Rubio‐Serrano, Javier, Real de Asúa, Diego
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Alzheimer's disease
Attrition (Research Studies)
Confidence intervals
COVID-19
COVID-19 vaccines
Death
Death & dying
Down syndrome
Drug Use
Drugs
Immunization
Infections
Life expectancy
Medical records
Mortality
Pandemics
Psychotropic drugs
Respiratory diseases
respiratory infections
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background The life expectancy of people with Down syndrome (DS) is limited by Alzheimer's disease (AD)‐related deaths, mainly due to respiratory infections. The emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic could have changed known, past trends in mortality in this population. We analysed the differences in causes of mortality between individuals with DS deceased before and after the onset of the pandemic. Method This is a cross‐sectional study of adults with DS recruited at a tertiary, university outpatient clinic in Madrid, Spain. Demographic and clinical data were retrospectively collected from their medical records, including information on their deaths, if any. Results Five hundred seventy‐two adults were included in the study, and 67 (11.7%) died. The main cause of death was respiratory infections, which occurred in 36 participants [9 (45.0%) before, and 27 (58.7%) after the appearance of COVID‐19]. No significant differences were found in the determinants of pre‐pandemic and post‐pandemic death after adjusting for age and AD, except for an association between the use of psychotropic medication and death in the post‐pandemic period (odds ratio: 2.24; 95% confidence interval: 1.04–4.82). Vaccination against COVID‐19 showed a marked protective effect against mortality (odds ratio: 0.0002; 95% confidence interval: 6.7e10−6 to 0.004). Conclusions The appearance of COVID‐19 has not impacted the overall trend of increase in mean age of death of adults with DS in our milieu, probably thanks to the very important protective effect of vaccination, which supports prioritising people with DS in future immunisation campaigns. The association between psychotropic medication use and mortality requires further exploration.
ISSN:0964-2633
1365-2788
DOI:10.1111/jir.13096