Older US Veterans Suffered From COVID-19

In a national study focused on US military veterans published in JAMA on September 23, 2020, most SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus related fatalities in the Department of Veterans Affairs national health care system were associated with older age, male gender, and various comorbidity burden. Most deaths in this cohort of 10,131 veterans occurred in patients with the age of 50 years or older (63.4%) and Charlson Comorbidity Index score of at least 1 (11.1%).

Many factors previously reported to be associated with mortality in smaller studies were not confirmed, such as obesity, Black race, Hispanic ethnicity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, and smoking.

This data compares with current US active-duty military personnel, which reported over 48,000 coronavirus cases and just 8 related fatalities as of October 9, 2020.