Older adults and people from certain racial and ethnic groups are disproportionately represented in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) hospitalizations and deaths.

Using data from the Premier Healthcare Database on 181,813 hospitalized adults diagnosed with COVID-19 during March-September 2020, we applied multivariable log-binomial regression to assess the associations between age and race/ethnicity and COVID-19 clinical severity (intensive care unit [ICU] admission, invasive mechanical ventilation [IMV], and death) and to determine whether the impact of age on clinical severity differs by race/ethnicity.

Overall, 84,497 (47%) patients were admitted to the ICU, 29,078 (16%) received IMV, and 27,864 (15%) died in the hospital.

Increased age was strongly associated with clinical severity when controlling for underlying medical conditions and other covariates; the strength of this association differed by race/ethnicity.

These results indicate that age is a driver of poor outcomes among hospitalized persons with COVID-19.

Additionally, clinical severity may be elevated among patients of some racial and ethnic minority groups.

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