You’re most likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 if you’re older, male, black, or have an underlying health condition.
COVID-19 is more likely to lead to hospitalization for people with underlying medical conditions, older adults, men, and African Americans, according to preliminary data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on April 8.
The CDC compiled data on COVID-19 patients who were admitted during March to a network of hospitals in parts of 14 states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah.
Only about 10% of the U.S. population lives in the geographic areas included in the study, writes New York Times correspondent David Waldstein. But the study sample is viewed as a representative snapshot of the virus’s spread and the demographic breakdown of patients.
According to the CDC study, Americans were more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 during March if they were:
Living with one or more underlying medical conditions: About 90% of the 1,482 hospitalized patients in the study fit into this category. The most common conditions were hypertension, obesity, chronic metabolic diseases like diabetes, chronic lung disease like asthma, and cardiovascular disease.
Older: Almost three quarters (74.5%) of hospitalized patients were 50 or older. Overall, 4.6 people per 100,000 have been hospitalized in the study areas. But the hospitalization rate jumped to 13.8 per 100,000 for people 65 and older, and 17.2 per 100,000 for patients 85 and older. These rates are higher than hospitalization rates for the seasonal flu.
Men: More than half (54.4%) of hospitalized patients were men. The CDC found this statistically significant, since men represent only 49% of the populations in the study regions.
Black: The highest overall percentage of hospitalized patients was white (45%), but the percentage of black patients (33%) was much higher than the percentage of African-Americans in the population as a whole, according to the CDC. In the geographic areas covered by the study, 59% of the population is white and 18% is black, “suggesting that black populations might be disproportionately affected by COVID-19,” according to the CDC.
The CDC cautioned that its findings were preliminary, and that the number of cases is expected to increase considerably as the virus continues to spread and as testing becomes more available.
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