The burden of age and comorbidity is more prominent in ICU-admission for sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) than for COVID-19. This is likely to be caused by a combination of COVID-19 affecting the relatively healthy more severely, that is, the cause of respiratory failure is not as strongly dependent on comorbidities as in other forms of ARDS, and the use of restrictive admission policies during the early part of the pandemic in severely affected areas.

Most comorbidities, as well as age, had a stronger association with sepsis admission than COVID-19 admission with the exception of male sex, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and asthma that were more strongly associated with COVID-19 admission, while no difference was seen for chronic renal failure and obesity.

For COVID-19 and ARDS admission most risk factors were more strongly associated with ARDS admission except for male sex, type 2 diabetes mellitus, chronic renal failure, and obesity which were more strongly associated with COVID-19 admission, whereas hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma were not different.

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