Has the age of patients in ICU changed?

[DuchessOfHastings123]

Over the last few months I have seen many comments on MN on how patients in this wave are much younger (under 50) compared to last year. Does anyone have any information on this?
I looked at the ICNARC reports for March 2020 and Feb 2021 and the age range of patients look very similar to me. First graph is feb 21 and second is march 20.
Just curious what other people's understanding/experience of this is

@Fembot123 okay then...

Well surely there will be way more younger people in ICU because there are way more people with it? If you expect a given percentage of the under 50's to go to hospital with the illness no matter what , the more people that have the illness the greater the number in this group, just like any other? In our ICU the two biggest co-morbidities by far are obesity and/or diabetes. We've had very few under 60's without one of these factors.

@Fembot123

There is no more reason now than ever before to be ‘terrified’, if that is your position now it should have been your position since the start.

She's more terrified because it's scarier that younger people are more at risk. Anyone is entitled to feel any emotion they feel.

Yesterday I saw on TV a 7 year old child had died of Covid. I don't know if underlying health issues or not but 7 years old.

@Itisasecret

Sources is the new arsehole phrase. I know two ICU Dr’s who are a little upset over how many younger people are in ICU. Children in my family are about to be orphaned because both parents are in ICU (Tier 4 area). My own children could lose their Dad and another person I know is at deaths door and they are in their 50’s. Anecdata enough for you?

Sending you and a hug.

Personally I know a couple of 30-40 year olds in ICU at the moment. Also this time round when one person is positive it has spread to everyone in the family and they all seem to be much more sick than last year.

Relative works in a big A&E. He said the people in ICU are younger - 30s - 50s mostly - but most have either known or unknown (at time of admittance) pre-existing conditions. Apparently even having an existing bad allergy (including Asthma) can potentially put you at risk of serious inflammatory symptoms with Covid.

In intensive care, the average age of Covid patients in the second wave is 60.2 compared with 58.8 in the first wave.

According to analysis of 10,000 patients in intensive care in the last four months of 2020, men are around twice as likely as women to end up critically ill with Covid, from the age of 40 upwards.

While most seriously-ill men in intensive care were in their 60s, around 15% were in their 50s and 8% in their 40s.

The new variant, which is thought to be more transmissible than previous forms of the virus, is behind the recent sharp rise in cases.

It appears to affect people of all ages - but there is no evidence it makes people more seriously ill with Covid-19, including children and young people.

🤔

Why do people keep saying covid does not discriminate? It clearly does affect, generally, older, BAME, and obese people more seriously.

What I want is something like this: www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-age.html

But with hospitalisation Vs ICU Vs death and comparing first wave and now.

My information came from a BBC news website article. If you look for that they may have a data source link.

It is very difficult to find any break down of ICU ages it seems. Occasionally the show percentages but the age brackets used are to wide really.

Good luck on your hunt

The age of patients in ICU hasn't changed vastly.

It's more that the bullshit about covid only seriously affecting the elderly and frail and it being a mild illness for everyone else was never true

@Ladyellow

Well surely there will be way more younger people in ICU because there are way more people with it? If you expect a given percentage of the under 50's to go to hospital with the illness no matter what , the more people that have the illness the greater the number in this group, just like any other? In our ICU the two biggest co-morbidities by far are obesity and/or diabetes. We've had very few under 60's without one of these factors.

This is what I had assumed really

Hasn’t changed however government want to get message out that young and healthy also vulnerable to COVID in order to ensure compliance, so are publishing stats focused on young IMO

@PrincessNutNuts

The age of patients in ICU hasn't changed vastly.

It's more that the bullshit about covid only seriously affecting the elderly and frail and it being a mild illness for everyone else was never true

We have always known that a small percentage of young people become seriously ill. What I was wanting to know is whether this percentage has increased

@Lovely1a2b3c, no they aren’t!! 🤦🏼‍♀️

It would only be relevant ‘anecdata’ if I’d said no one under 50 could/would/have died from it. Just pointing out the dangers of getting ‘facts’ from a anonymous forum. Everyone is entitled to their feelings but to present them as fact to ramp up fear factor is disingenuous at best.

I’m sure I’ve seen a list of underlying conditions on the government stats and some of them are very surprising to say the least.
Yep broken bones, dermatitis and female genital prolapse to name a few. Really creates an illusion that those with pre existing conditions are about to die with any nasty infection but it us not the case.

It's more that the bullshit about covid only seriously affecting the elderly and frail and it being a mild illness for everyone else was never true

Did anyone actually ever say that
I’m pretty sure it was more of a ‘you’re statistically highly unlikely to be badly affected by Covid if you’re younger’
Or ‘for the majority of people, Covid is a mild illness’
Granted, for a sizeable minority it isn’t.

I’m sorry about your v unwell family members, Itisasecret.

But people seeking data sources are not ‘arseholes’ for doing so. Data and accurate media reporting are important.

@Dozer

I’m sorry about your v unwell family members, Itisasecret.

But people seeking data sources are not ‘arseholes’ for doing so. Data and accurate media reporting are important.

Exactly.

All that's happened is the word, 'Younger', is now being exchanged for healthy. Much like the broad use of pre existing condition's.

The groupings have not changed, there are of course exceptions.
There are people, a significant figure who have a health age equivalence and a natural age. They're not the same.

However, there are not thousands of athletic young men and women or rows of children in ICU.
That scenario is complete bollox.

www.icnarc.org/Our-Audit/Audits/Cmp/Reports

Report mentioned by Greybeardy: Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (INARC).

www.icnarc.org/DataServices/Attachments/Download/9621110e-f267-eb11-912e-00505601089b

P27/28 for patient characteristics. Median age of admission (from Aug): 60.