TY - JOUR T1 - Late Breaking Abstract - Hospitalized patients aged =70 years were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2021.PA3329 VL - 58 IS - suppl 65 SP - PA3329 AU - J. Morel Symons AU - Daniel Gibbons AU - Marguerite Bracher Y1 - 2021/09/05 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/58/suppl_65/PA3329.abstract N2 - Introduction: COVID-19 is associated with a wide range of clinical severity. Older age is an established risk factor for severe COVID-19, particularly for hospitalized patients developing comorbid pneumonia and requiring respiratory support. Differential expression of inflammatory mediators has been demonstrated for patients aged ≥70 years.Aim: To assess severity for patients aged ≥70 years among adults hospitalized with COVID-19.Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study with patient data from the Premier Health Database, comprising healthcare and billing information from geographically diverse hospitals in the United States from April 2020 through March 2021.Results: We identified >520,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with 41% classified as older patients, aged ≥70 years. Overall, 160,000 patients required respiratory support during their encounter with nearly 110,000 (68%) also diagnosed with comorbid pneumonia. Among patients requiring respiratory support and with pneumonia, a similar proportion of older patients (34%) required intensive care unit (ICU) care as those <70 years (38%). Among patients progressing to ICU, 65% of patients ≥70 years and 68% of those <70 years also received mechanical ventilation. Despite similar interventions, older patients were more than twice as likely to die in hospital than younger patients, with 63% of all study cohort deaths occurring among those aged ≥70 years.Measurements and Main Results: Our study validates the observation that patients aged ≥70 years are at increased risk of more serious outcomes from COVID-19 hospitalization, particularly those diagnosed with comorbid pneumonia.Funded by GSK; medical writing support provided by Fishawack Indicia Ltd, funded by GSK.FootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2021; 58: Suppl. 65, PA3329.This abstract was presented at the 2021 ERS International Congress, in session “Prediction of exacerbations in patients with COPD”.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only). ER -