Warning on virus danger for young adults who smoke
Onethird of young people across the country may be at risk of getting seriously sick with COVID19, especially if they smoke or vape, according to a UCSF study published Monday in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Smoking was the most common risk factor for severe COVID19 complications among otherwise largely healthy young people, the study found.
For young men, smoking or vaping may more than double the potential of being hospi
talized, needing intensive care, or even dying from the virus. For young women, who suffer more from other risk factors, smoking or vaping could increase the possibility 1½ times.
“I think most young adults don’t think they’re at risk,” said senior author Dr. Charles Irwin Jr., director of the UCSF Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine. “To me, that was shocking to find that smoking contributed so much to being at risk . ... It’s a message that you might be able to do something about.”
The study sounds the alarm as coronavirus cases among youth appear to be driving the nation’s surge. Young people between 18 and 29 are filling more hospital beds than at the start of the pandemic, with a 299% increase in hospitalizations from midApril to late June, according to a UCSF analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. At UCSF, 14% of people in the same age range who tested positive through the health system needed inpatient care.
To find the risks for this growing group, the study analyzed medical data from 8,405 men and women ages 18 to 25 through the National Health Interview Survey, a representative data set based on annual surveys from 2016 to 2018.
The authors looked for COVID19 risk factors, defined by the CDC as heart conditions, diabetes, asthma, immune conditions, liver conditions, obesity and smoking. The study authors added ecigarettes to tobacco and cigars because of research showing they cause similar lung damage.
Of the young people surveyed, 20% had smoked in the past 30 days.
Among the whole group, the risk of getting severely sick from COVID19 was 32%. That risk was cut in half — to 16% — when smokers were taken out of the equation, revealing how smoking alone spiked the likelihood of young people being hospitalized or dying from the virus.
“It’s really the vulnerable point for the young adult group right now,” said study author Sally Adams, specialist at UCSF Division of Adolescent and Young
Adult Medicine.
The authors also analyzed gender, race, income and health insurance compared with risk factors. Men were more likely to smoke and were at increased risk of getting sicker from COVID19, although nonsmoking women had higher rates of asthma, immune conditions and obesity that made them more vulnerable to the virus. Among races, whites were at increased risk to get severely sick, in line with higher smoking rates. People who were low income and uninsured were more likely to smoke, which raised their health risks.
The study highlighted the risks to young people as cases among the age group rise nationally and locally. In California, new coronavirus cases among people under age 35 surged by 73% in the last two weeks of June compared to the first two weeks of the month, while infections among people over 50 rose 42%, an analysis of California Department of Public Health data revealed.
“Young people appear to be driving this epidemic surge,” said George Lemp, an infectiousdisease epidemiologist and retired director of the California HIV/AIDS research program at the University of California, who crunched the numbers. “This is a concern since they are also more frequently asymptomatic and capable of spreading the virus silently while it’s undetected.”
Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory. moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench