P48: Elderly centenarians and the COVID-19 pandemic: integrative literature review

Abstract

Introduction: Aging is a global phenomenon that can be explained, in short, by improvements in living conditions, which leads to an increase in life expectancy, combined with a reduction in recorded fertility rates. In this sense, it is understood that due to some biopsychosocial determinants, some individuals live much longer than the rest of the population, as is the case of elderly centenarians and this is the focus of this study. It is known that the COVID-19 pandemic scenario was challenging for the elderly population. In this sense, the study aims to analyze the production of national and international knowledge of research articles on the COVID-19 pandemic for centenarian elderly people

Methods: This is an integrative literature review, carried out in six stages: selection of the research question; literature search; categorization of studies; evaluation of studies included in the review; interpretation of results and presentation of the review. The research question was developed according to the PICO strategy. The population refers to elderly centenarians (P); the intervention concerns the COVID-19 pandemic scenario (I); the comparison group is not applicable in this study (C) and the outcome refers to bibliographical productions about elderly centenarians from 2020 onwards (O). The search strategy was carried out on the PubMed/MEDLINE and LILACS platforms. The articles found were exported to the Mendeley Desktop program to exclude duplicates. Soon after, they were transported to a spreadsheet in Microso Excel®. After that, the articles were analyzed, categorized and organized in a table format to facilitate the Discussion of the results found. The data obtained so far is controversial regarding mortality and resilience of centenarians to SARS-CoV-2. These results are justified, in part, due to the uniqueness of each elderly person who can respond in a unique way to SARS- CoV-2. Results: After applying the search criteria, 18 articles were selected for full reading. After that, according to the established inclusion criteria, eight articles were selected for this review. Studies were found from Italy, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, China and France. The mortality/resilience of centenarians to SARS-CoV-2 was the most discussed topic among the publications. The relationship between the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was also addressed in three publications. Supercentenarians (>110 years old) were the subject of study in two publications. Analyzes of immunological and/or genetic studies were also found. Supercentenarians appear to possess some kind of resilience against SARS- CoV-2. The most accepted hypothesis to justify this fact is the association between exposure to the Influenza virus, which caused the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, and resilience to SARS-CoV- 2. Only one of the studies found took place in Brazil.

Conclusions: The topic deserves to be better addressed, as considering the potential increase in the number of centenarians in the future, the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic should help the management and care of this population in the event of a new infectious disease.