Although older adults face the highest risk of being hospitalized with or dying from COVID-19, younger adults can also end up in the hospital. And if they do, the consequences can be severe researchers report September 9 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Younger adults now make up nearly a quarter of U.S. coronavirus cases, although they are less likely to develop severe symptoms. But of roughly 3,200 people ages 18 to 34 who were admitted to 419 U.S. hospitals from early April to the end of June, 21 percent landed in intensive care and 10 percent ended up on ventilators. Almost 3 percent, or nearly 100 people, died.
That death rate is lower than what has been reported for older adults, but still higher than it is for some other illnesses. For instance, it’s more than twice the death rate for heart attacks in young adults, the researchers wrote. More than half of the hospitalized young adults were Black or Hispanic, although race or ethnicity was not associated with an increased risk of death or needing a ventilator.
Underlying conditions like severe obesity or high blood pressure were linked to more serious illness or death. And the team found that younger adults who have multiple underlying conditions can face similar risks of serious illness and death as people 35 to 64 years old without those conditions. What’s more, 3 percent of the people who survived their hospital stay needed more care in a nursing facility afterwards.