Patients aged 60 to 69 most often hospitalized with COVID-19

(HealthDay)—Persons aged 60 to 69 years with COVID-19 are the most commonly hospitalized, according to a research letter published online April 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Laura C. Myers, M.D., M.P.H., from Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) in Oakland, and colleagues characterized adults with nasal/throat swabs positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) hospitalized at 21 KPNC hospitals between March 1 and March 31, 2020.

A total of 1,299 patients were positive for SARS-CoV-2; of these patients, 29 percent were treated as inpatients and 8.7 percent were treated in the intensive care unit (ICU). The researchers found that the patients had a median age of 61 years, 56.2 percent were men, and hypertension was the most common comorbidity (43.5 percent). Seventy percent of patients (264 patients) were treated on the general ward or intermediate care unit, and of among these patients, 54.9 percent received supplemental oxygen through a nasal cannula or face mask. Thirty percent of inpatients (113 patients) required ICU admission and 29.2 percent received invasive mechanical ventilation. The most common age group hospitalized and admitted to the ICU was patients aged 60 to 69 years (24.6 and 27.4 percent, respectively). A total of 50 patients died in the hospital: 16 treated on the ward and 34 in the ICU.

"These findings underscore the importance of public health interventions that prevent transmission for the entire public to mitigate hospital surges," the authors write.

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