Media release

From: American College of Physicians

Younger males at higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection than previously recognized
A population-based cohort study found that after adjusting for testing frequency by age group, younger males may be an underrecognized group at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Previously, the pandemic has been characterized by higher observed incidence in older persons and lower incidence in children and adolescents. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto studied data from a provincial Ontario health database to determine whether differential testing by age group would explain observed variation in incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The researchers found that disease incidence and testing rates were highest in the oldest age group and markedly lower in those younger than 20 years, regardless of sex. After adjustment for testing frequency, infection rates were lowest in children and in adults aged 70 years or older and markedly higher in adolescents and in males aged 20 to 49 years compared with the overall population.

According to the researchers, these findings are important because they suggest that younger males may be silent drivers of virulent SARS-CoV-2 infection in older adults.