COVIP study

The COVID19 disease in Very Elderly Intensive care Patients (COVIP) study

The data collection was divided into two parts:
Part 1: March 2020 until April 22nd 2021 .
Part 2 (COVIP 2022 extension): February 2022 – March 1st 2023).


Background

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 affected millions of people across the world and there was an urgent need to investigate patient characteristics and outcome trajectories. Preliminary reports reported a high risk of death in patients with multimorbidity. Very old patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections suffered from high mortality rates (1). It was unclear if age alone is an independent risk factor, or if co-morbiditites and frailty trigger adverse outcomes.

In non-COVID-19 elderly patients admitted to the ICU, our European research group (2) found that the co-factors are more important than chronological age itself (3, 4). In patients with COVID-19, pretreatment with angiotensin-blockers and ACE-inhibitors (5) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen (6) were suggested to be associated with adverse outcome. Furthermore, some groups have reported a higher death rate in patients with concomitant cardiovascular disease (7) and diabetes (8).

This international, multicenter study group (VIP-network) conducted a prospective, observational study to examine the relationship between age, co-morbidities, pretreatment frailty and outcomes in a group of elderly patients receiving critical care for COVID-19. The study was endorsed by The European Intensive Care Society (ESICM), could be followed on ResearchGate and was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04321265).


Country coordinators and steering group


Christian JungPrinciple Investigator of the COVIP study and German coordinator
Dusseldorf, Germany
Hans FlaattenPrincipal Investigator of the VIP study group, Past chair HSRO section,
Bergen, Norway
Bertrand GuidetFrench coordinator
Paris, France
Dylan W de LangeThe Netherlands coordinator and Chair of ESICM HSRO section
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Antonio ArtigasSpanish coordinator
Barcelona, Spain
Ariane BoumendilStatistician
Paris, France
Bernardo Bollen PintoSwiss coordinator
Geneva, Switzerland
Bernhard WernlyCo-Investigator and scientific support
Salzburg, Austria
Brian MarshIrish coordinator
Dublin, Ireland
David DudzinskiUSA coordinator
Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Evmorfia KondyliGreek Coordinator
Greece
Finn AndersenNorwegian coordinator
Ålesund, Norway
Jesper FjølnerDanish coordinator, datamanager
Viborg, Denmark
Matjaž JerebSlovenia coordinator
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Michael JoannidisAustrian coordinator
Innsbruck, Austria
Muhammed ElhadiAlgeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lybia, Iraq, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria coordinator
Tripoli, Libya
Raphael R. BrunoCo-Investigator and scientific support
Düsseldorf, Germany
Rokas SerpytisLithuanian coordinator
Vilnius, Lithuania
Rui MorenoPortuguese coordinator
Lisboa, Portugal
Sandra OeyenBelgium coordinator
Ghent, Belgium
Sigal SviriIsraeli coordinator
Jerusalem, Israel
Sten WaltherSwedish coordinator
Linkoping, Sweden
Susannah LeaverUnited Kingdom coodinator
London, England
Tilemachos Zafeiridis †Greek coordinator
Larissa, Greece
Wojciech SzczeklikPolish coordinator
Krakow, Poland
Yuriy NalapkoUkranian coordinator
Lugansk, Ukraine

References

  1. Yang X, Yu Y, Xu J, Shu H, Xia J, Liu H, et al. Clinical course and outcomes of critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a single-centered, retrospective, observational study. Lancet Respir Med. 2020.
  2. Flaatten H, de Lange DW, Artigas A, Bin D, Moreno R, Christensen S, et al. The status of intensive care medicine research and a future agenda for very old patients in the ICU. Intensive Care Med. 2017;43(9):1319-28.
  3. Flaatten H, De Lange DW, Morandi A, Andersen FH, Artigas A, Bertolini G, et al. The impact of frailty on ICU and 30-day mortality and the level of care in very elderly patients (>/= 80 years). Intensive Care Med. 2017;43(12):1820-8.
  4. Guidet B, de Lange DW, Boumendil A, Leaver S, Watson X, Boulanger C, et al. The contribution of frailty, cognition, activity of daily life and comorbidities on outcome in acutely admitted patients over 80 years in European ICUs: the VIP2 study. Intensive Care Med. 2020;46(1):57-69.
  5. [Available from: https://www.escardio.org/Councils/Council-on-Hypertension-(CHT)/News/position-statement-of-the-esc-council-on-hypertension-on-ace-inhibitors-and-ang.
  6. Day M. Covid-19: ibuprofen should not be used for managing symptoms, say doctors and scientists. BMJ. 2020;368:m1086.
  7. Li B, Yang J, Zhao F, Zhi L, Wang X, Liu L, et al. Prevalence and impact of cardiovascular metabolic diseases on COVID-19 in China. Clin Res Cardiol. 2020.
  8. Zhou F, Yu T, Du R, Fan G, Liu Y, Liu Z, et al. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet. 2020.