In a new study, researchers found the number of young adults infected with the coronavirus surges throughout the nation.
This indicates that youth may not shield people from serious diseases.
The research was conducted by a team at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.
The study looked at data drawn from a nationally representative sample of approximately 8,400 men and women ages 18 to 25 and concluded that overall “medical vulnerability” was 33% for males and 30% for females.
The impact of smoking surpassed other less common risks.
Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that while patients over 65 are significantly more likely to be hospitalized than younger people, the gap is narrowing.
For the week ending April 18, there were 8.7 hospitalizations per 100,000 of the population for the 18-to-29 age bracket, compared with 128.3 per 100,000 of the population for patients over 65.
By the week ending June 27, the figures were 34.7 and 306.7 respectively, representing a 299% increase in hospitalizations for young adults, versus a 139% t increase in hospitalizations for older adults.
In the study, the researchers determined vulnerability by referencing indicators identified by the CDC.
These included heart conditions, diabetes, current asthma, immune conditions (such as lupus, gout, rheumatoid arthritis), liver conditions, obesity and smoking within the previous 30 days.
Additionally, they added e-cigarettes to tobacco and cigar use, which the CDC had included, stating that all three were associated with adverse effects on respiratory and immune function.
Since there was no data on the relative impact of each of the CDC risk factors, the researchers used an overall medical vulnerability estimate of having at least one of the indicators as the outcome variable, rather than a cumulative score of indicators.
Thus, the medical vulnerability was assessed according to each indicator, so that among smokers, for example, 100% were vulnerable for severe COVID-19.
Most notable among their results was that medical vulnerability stood at 16.1% for the 6,741 non-smokers, versus 31.5% for the full sample of 8,405 young adults, which included smokers.
The findings show smoking is associated with a higher likelihood of COVID-19 progression, including increased illness severity, ICU admission or death
Smoking may have big effects in young adults, who typically have low rates for most chronic diseases.
The team says the risk of being medically vulnerable to severe disease is halved when smokers are removed from the sample.
Efforts to reduce smoking and e-cigarette use among young adults would likely lower their vulnerability to severe disease.
One author of the study is Sally Adams, PhD, of the UCSF Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine.
The study is published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
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