Frailty and mortality in patients with COVID-19 – Authors' reply

The frailty and mortality relationship in patients with COVID-19

“…I would like to thank the authors for highlighting the importance of the relationship between frailty, inflammation and mortality, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both frailty and inflammation have been linked to increased mortality, especially in patients with COVID-19 [ 2 ]. However, I would like to comment on some of their findings which need more clarity.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that there exist an association between frailty on the CFS and mortality in older inpatients with COVID-19 [ 4 ]. More specifically, the CFS has been shown to be a useful tool for risk stratification in patients with COVID-19 and has been shown to better predict disease outcomes than age and comorbidity [ 2 ]. This highlights the importance of treating their findings with caution and encouraging further research on this relationship.…”

“…Although the relationship between frailty and inflammation is poorly understood, the literature suggests frailty and pre-frailty are associated with higher inflammatory parameters with frail and pre-frail patients having significantly higher serum levels of CRP and IL-6 than robust patients [ 5 ]. Perhaps adjustment for factors exhibiting worsening clinical outcome with increasing frailty, including CRP, are required to find the true association between frailty and increased mortality as previously described [ 2 ].…”