ArticleBMJ public health2025
Association of disability with COVID-19 outcomes in older adults: a prospective analysis of the US health and retirement study.
Article in BMJ public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted the ageing population and persons with disability. Previous studies have used cross-sectional or descriptive designs, limiting the establishment of robust associations. Our objective was to examine prospective associations between functional disability and COVID-19 outcomes in ageing US adults. Methods: This study included 9390 Health and Retirement Study participants from the 2018 wave, representing 64 044 633 adults aged 50 years or older, who completed the 2021 Pandemic Mail-in Survey. Baseline functional disability comprised activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL. COVID-19 outcomes included infection, emergency room utilisation, hospitalisation, length of hospital stay and post-COVID conditions (PCC). Multivariate regression and propensity-score weighting were applied to assess prospective associations between baseline functional disability, vaccination and COVID-19 outcomes. Targeted learning was applied to assess the association between functional disability and COVID-19 within each vaccination stratum. Mediation analysis was used to quantify the proportion of effects of functional disability on COVID-19 infection and PCC, mediated through vaccination. Results: 1460 (16.2%) participants reported infection, 7985 (86.1%) were vaccinated and 178 (11.4%) of COVID-19 infected had PCC. Functional disability was associated with increased risk of infection (OR: 1.28, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.64) and PCC (OR: 2.24, 95% CI 1.05 to 4.47), while vaccination was protective against infection (OR: 0.53, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.67). Vaccination mediated a small portion of the effect of functional disability on infection and PCC, while showing no effect modification. Conclusions: Comprehensive strategies beyond vaccination are needed to decrease infections and prevent PCC for vulnerable ageing adults with functional disability. As the first study to prospectively investigate associations between functional disability, vaccination status and COVID-19 outcomes using nationally representative data, these findings provide a robust foundation for future research and policy decisions to protect vulnerable populations during public health emergencies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.