We know high-risk groups for hospitalization and death from #COVID19 include older individuals and those with pre-existing health conditions. But it’s been hard to disentangle these factors from one another.
i.e., what risk do people over 65 years old without a pre-existing condition face compared to those that do have such a condition? How about someone younger than 65 with a pre-existing condition?
A new CDC report looks at COVID-19 cases in the U.S. through March 28, and gives a breakdown of risk of hospitalization and intensive care admission by age and pre-existing condition status. cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
Note: the data are preliminary and incomplete, as only 7,162 (5.8%) of the 122,653 reported U.S. COVID-19 cases have information about pre-existing conditions.
Authors report that among those 19-64 y.o. WITH a pre-existing conditions, ~18-20% were hospitalized. Among those WITHOUT conditions: ~6% were hospitalized. 
Among those equal to or >65 y.o. WITH pre-existing conditions, ~42-44% were hospitalized. For those WITHOUT conditions: ~17-18% were hospitalized.
So, those younger than 65 with a pre-existing condition had about the same (or even slightly greater) risk for hospitalization compared to those over 65 without such a condition.
Again, preliminary and limited data, but helpful when thinking about how risk may be distributed in different groups.
Also note a broad set of underlying conditions were included: chronic lung disease; diabetes; cardiovascular disease; chronic renal disease; chronic liver disease; immunocompromised; neurologic disorder, neurodevelopmental, or intellectual disability; pregnancy; smoker.
