Publication date: Jan 01, 2025
Understanding the risk of hospitalization from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections can guide effective public health interventions and severity assessments. This study calculated infection-hospitalization ratios (IHRs) and infection-case ratios (ICRs) to understand the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infections, cases, and hospitalizations among different age groups during periods of Delta and Omicron variant predominance. After calculating antinucleocapsid SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence using residual commercial laboratory serum specimens, 2 ratios were computed: (1) IHRs using coronavirus disease 2019 hospitalization data and (2) ICRs using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance data. Ratios were calculated across age groups (0-17, 18-49, 50-69, and ≥70 years) for 2 time periods (September-December 2021 [Delta] and December 2021-February 2022 [Omicron]). Pediatric IHRs increased from 76. 7 during Delta to 258. 4 during Omicron. Adult IHRs ranged from 3. 0 (≥70 years) to 21. 6 (18-49 years) during Delta and from 10. 0 (≥70 years) to 119. 1 (18-49 years) during Omicron. The pediatric ICR was lower during the Delta period (2. 7) compared with the Omicron period (3. 7). Adult ICRs (Delta: 1. 1 [18-49 years] to 2. 1 [70+ years]; Omicron: 2. 2 [>70+ years] to 2. 9 [50-69 years]) were lower than pediatric ICRs during both time periods. All age groups exhibited a lower proportion of infections associated with hospitalization in the Omicron period than the Delta period; the proportion of infections associated with hospitalization increased with each older age group. A lower proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infections were associated with reported cases in the Omicron period than in the Delta period among all age groups.
Open Access PDF
Concepts | Keywords |
---|---|
Antibody | antibody |
Coronavirus | COVID-19 |
Hospitalization | immunology |
September | SARS-CoV-2 |
seroprevalence |
Semantics
Type | Source | Name |
---|---|---|
disease | MESH | Infections |
disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
disease | IDO | infection |