Prevalence and trend of COVID-19 disease in nursing homes of Tehran University of Medical Science and Health Services in 2019-2020

Awareness about the epidemiological status of the disease in nursing homes is required for achieving accurate information about the disease status, its control among the high-risk groups, and proper policies. Due to the lack of a similar study in Iran, the current study was aimed to determine the prevalence and trend of COVID-19 infection in nursing homes in Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

In the current cross-sectional study, the studied data included the total number of elderly and non-elderly residents, the number of staff, the number of new cases, the number of deaths, and the number of performed tests separately in staff and residents. Statistical methods such as simple proportions with 95% confidence interval (CI) and line plots were used to analyze the data.

The overall prevalence of COVID-19 from the beginning of the epidemic to the beginning of December 2020 was 26% (95%CI: 25 27). The prevalence among staff was 23.7% (95%CI: 21 25). Also, among the elderly and non-elderly residents was 50.16% (95%CI: 48 52) and 9.33% (95%CI: 7-11), respectively. The highest number of cases occurred in November.

It seems that the pattern of infection occurrence in nursing homes is affected by the prevalence of the disease in the general population, but due to the vulnerability of residents living in nursing homes, prevention the infection from entering and spreading within  these centers requires fundamental planning.