Abstract
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.