Mayo Clinic study provides insight into risk factors for severe COVID-19 in younger populations

Using data from 9,859 COVID-19 infections, researchers at the Mayo Clinic have new insight into risk factors for younger populations, some of whom differ significantly from their older counterparts. People under 45 have a more than three times higher risk of serious infection if they have cancer or heart disease, or blood, neurological or endocrine disorders, according to research. These associations were weaker in the older groups. The study was published in Proceedings of the Mayo Clinic.

The research team studied people living in an area of ​​27 counties in southeastern Minnesota and midwestern Wisconsin surrounding the Mayo Clinic in Rochester diagnosed with COVID-19 between March and September 2020. The study has used the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a linkage of 1.7 million medical records from multiple health care systems that provides a comprehensive picture of risks for an entire geographic region.

Medical care is really fragmented in our country, so a person diagnosed with COVID-19 at a health care provider could end up in an entirely different hospital for their severe case. If these records are not linked together, there really is not a good way for us to understand that it is even the same patient. In contrast, the Rochester Epidemiology Project allowed us to follow patients from the time they were diagnosed until their use of healthcare after that diagnosis, even though they were looked after in different locations. Additionally, we could look back through their medical records to better understand all of the chronic illnesses this population had even before being diagnosed with COVID-19 and how these illnesses may have contributed to more serious infections. “

Jennifer St. Sauver, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic epidemiologist and study lead author

Among study participants, cancer was the biggest difference in risk when comparing people under 45 and those under 45. For people under 45, cancer was a significant risk factor. It was not a significant factor for the older age group.

Researchers also found that people with developmental disabilities, personality disorders, schizophrenia and other psychoses had the highest adjusted risk of severe COVID-19 among all chronic diseases.

Like many other studies on risk factors for COVID-19, researchers found that certain races and ethnicities were at greater risk than others. Although only 4.1% of the study population, Asian Americans had the highest risk of severe COVID-19, followed by black Americans, who accounted for 11.5% of severe cases. Hispanic ethnicity was also associated with a higher risk of serious infection.

The team studied positive PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests for COVID-19 between March 1 and September 30, 2020.

The COVID in our community-based research study is being conducted by the Mayo Clinic, Olmsted County Public Health Department, Olmsted Medical Center, and Zumbro Valley Health Center. The researchers say the project would not have been possible without the Rochester Epidemiology Project.

“The Rochester Epidemiology Project allows us to study diseases, such as COVID-19, in a defined population, which offers the opportunity to translate our findings to all people with COVID-19, not just those with most serious illness requiring medical attention, “says senior author Céline Vachon, Ph.D., chair of the Mayo Clinic’s Division of Epidemiology. “This type of infrastructure will allow us to track patients with COVID-19 in the 27-county region over time to better understand any future links to the disease. “