TY - JOUR T1 - Predictors of Covid-19 level of concern among older adults from the health and retirement study. JF - Scientific Reports Y1 - 2022 A1 - Beydoun, Hind A A1 - Beydoun, May A A1 - Weiss, Jordan A1 - Gautam, Rana S A1 - Hossain, Sharmin A1 - Alemu, Brook T A1 - Zonderman, Alan B KW - COVID-19 KW - Female KW - Life Style KW - Retirement KW - Risk Factors AB -

The purpose of this longitudinal study is to construct a prediction model for Covid-19 level of concern using established Covid-19 socio-demographic, lifestyle and health risk characteristics and to examine specific contributions of obesity-related cardiometabolic health characteristics as predictors of Covid-19 level of concern among a representative sample of U.S. older adults. We performed secondary analyses of existing data on 2872 2006-2020 Health and Retirement Study participants and examined 19 characteristics in relation to the outcome of interest using logistic regression and machine learning algorithms. In mixed-effects ordinal logistic regression models, a history of diabetes, stroke as well as 1-2 cardiometabolic risk factors and/or chronic conditions were associated with greater Covid-19 level of concern, after controlling for confounders. Female sex, birth cohort, minority race, Hispanic ethnicity and total wealth as well as depressive symptoms were associated with higher level of Covid-19 concern, and education was associated with lower level of Covid-19 concern in fully adjusted mixed-effects ordinal logistic regression models. The selected socio-demographic, lifestyle and health characteristics accounted for < 70% of the variability in Covid-19 level of concern based on machine learning algorithms. Independent risk factors for Covid-19 level of concern among U.S. older adults include socio-demographic characteristics and depressive symptoms. Advanced research is needed to identify relevant predictors and elucidate underlying mechanisms of observed relationships.

VL - 12 IS - 1 ER -