COVID-19 mortality in Lombardy: the vulnerability of the oldest old and the resilience of male centenarians.

ABSTRACT: Italy was the first European nation to be affected by COVID-19. The biggest cluster of cases occurred in Lombardy, the most populous Italian region, and elderly men were the population hit in the hardest way. Besides its high infectivity, COVID-19 causes a severe cytokine storm and old people, especially those with comorbidities, appear to be the most vulnerable, presumably in connection to inflammaging. In centenarians inflammaging is much lower than predicted by their chronological age and females, presenting survival advantage in almost all centenarian populations, outnumber males, a phenomenon particularly evident in Northern Italy. Within this scenario, we wondered if: a) the COVID-19 mortality in centenarians was lower than that in people aged between 50 and 80 and b) the mortality f

SUBMITTER: Marcon G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7467374 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature