Associations between prior COVID-19 infection and health metrics in elderly nursing home residents: A propensity score matched analysis.

With the changes in China's COVID-19 policies, an increasing number of people have been infected with COVID-19. Elderly residents in nursing homes, due to factors such as advanced age, are considered a vulnerable population. However, there is still a lack of research on the impact on elderly Chinese nursing home residents who have not been infected with COVID-19. Participants were 506 Chinese elderly adults. Psychosocial characteristics were screened by The Perceived Social Support from Family scale (PSS-Fa) for family support, The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) for anxiety symptoms, the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for depressive symptoms. Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was applied to conduct mitigate potential confounding variables. multivariate linear regression models were employed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on these outcomes while adjusting for sociodemographic covariates. Results indicated that elderly individuals with a history of COVID-19 exhibited a notably higher pulse pressure (β = 3.57, P = .004) and reduced sleep duration (β = -0.67, P < .001). Following propensity score matching, all covariates were effectively balanced between the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 groups. Subsequent multivariate regression analysis post-matching revealed distinct findings compared to the pre-matching phase. Specifically, elderly individuals who had experienced COVID-19 were significantly associated with decreased sleep duration (β = -0.77, P < .002). elderly individuals who contracted COVID-19 generally experienced shorter sleep durations compared to their non-infected counterparts, which could potentially have adverse effects on overall health.