Age-related disparities in the severity course of COVID-19

COVID-19 demonstrates a different clinical severity of course in different age groups. In the present study, we present a comparative analysis regarding the risk of hospitalization and in-hospital mortality between two extreme age groups – children and young adults (0-39 years) and elderly patients (≥70 years). For the period from January to June 2022, nasopharyngeal samples of 1,611 patients at MHAT Uni Hospital (Panagyurishte, Bulgaria) were examined by PCR analysis, of which 486 had a positive result for SARS-CoV-2. From the first target group with a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, there were 158 patients with an average age of 27.5 years, and only one of them was hospitalized (a 30-year-old man, unvaccinated, with bilateral pneumonia and concomitant arterial hypertension). The average age of the patients from the second target group (n=40) was 75.6 years, 29 of them were outpatients and 11 were hospitalized, among whom 5 men with an average age of 77.6 years died. The average hospital stay of the only hospitalized patient from the young age group was 6 bed days, while for patients ≥70 years of age it was 10.1 bed days. Age is among the determinants of risk of hospitalization and in-hospital mortality associated with COVID-19.