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Back Press Release no. 06/2022 - COVID-19: 80 was average age of people who died, but was higher among vaccinated individuals

 

ISS, 26 January 2022

The average age of deceased individuals positive to SARS-CoV-2 in Italy was 80 years, most of whom were hospitalized but not in Intensive Care Units whereas vaccinated individuals died at a higher average age and had more pre-existing pathologies than non vaccinated individuals. These data, published recently by the ISS, are some of the data that emerged from the update of the death reports, based on Integrated Surveillance data and on a sample of medical records of patients who died with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test.

Here are the main findings.

Data from integrated COVID-19 surveillance

This section describes the characteristics of 138,099 SARS-CoV-2 positive patients who died in Italy since surveillance began on 10 January 2022 reported by the COVID-19 Integrated Surveillance System which is coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS).

  • The average age of SARS-CoV-2 positive patients who died was 80. The women who died were 60,201 (43.6%). The median age of SARS-CoV-2 positive patients who died was about 40 years higher than the age of patients who contracted the infection.
  • Of the Italian SARS-CoV-2 positive patients who died, 23.8% were hospitalized in an intensive care unit, 58.5% were hospitalized but not in intensive care and 17.7% were not hospitalised. The proportion of deceased individuals aged over 80 admitted to intensive care was much lower than the proportion of people aged less than 80. Among the population of deceased aged less than 80, 44.0% were hospitalized in an intensive care unit, 42.3% were hospitalized but not in intensive care and 13.7% were not hospitalized, neither in intensive care nor in any other hospital ward. Conversely, among the population aged over 80, 8.2% were hospitalized in an intensive care unit, 71.1% were hospitalized but not in intensive care and 20.7% were not hospitalized, neither in intensive care nor in any other hospital ward.

Data from a sample of medical records

  • The data presented were obtained from 8,436 deceased indiivduals whose medical records were analyzed. The medical records were sent to the ISS by the hospitals according to different deadlines, compatibly with the priorities of the activities carried out in the various hospitals. Table 1 of the report presents the most common pre-existing chronic pathologies (diagnosed before contracting the infection) in a sample of deceased patients (note that the presence of pre-existing pathologies is a recognized risk factor). The average number of pathologies observed in this population is 3.7. Overall, 246 patients (2.9% of the sample) had no pathologies, 955 (11.3%) had 1 pathology, 1,512 (17.9%) had 2 pathologies while 5,723 (67.8%) had 3 or more pre-existing pathologies.
  • Among the deceased patients transferred to intensive care, the average number of pathologies observed was 3.0. In people who were not admitted to intensive care, the average number of pathologies observed was 3.9. The deceased with an 'incomplete vaccination cycle' and those with a 'complete vaccination cycle' (N.B. patients with 'boosters' were not considered) had a significantly higher mean age (82.6 respectively and 84.7 vs. 78.6) than the ‘unvaccinated’ deceased. Also the average number of pathologies observed was significantly higher in the groups of vaccinated people with both an 'incomplete' and 'complete vaccination cycle' compared to the 'unvaccinated' individuals (respectively 5.0 and 4.9 vs. 3.9 pre-existing pathologies)


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