“Suddenly, over 70 years was the most dangerous disease”

On March 16, the Swedish Public Health Agency recommended that more than 1.6 million people over 70, corresponding to 16 percent of the population, avoid social contacts as much as possible. Stock Photography.Photo: Fredrik Sandberg / TT

On March 16, the Swedish Public Health Agency recommended that more than 1.6 million people over 70, corresponding to 16 percent of the population, avoid social contacts as much as possible. Both nationally and internationally, advanced age was the clearest factor for high mortality in covid-19, and the message from the Public Health Authority was that the most vulnerable should be protected.

But the Public Health Authority has announced that it is reviewing the restrictions, perhaps it can be relieved of them for younger, healthier people in the age group, CEO Johan Carlson said on the SVT Agenda on Sunday night. .

– You should see if all people in the older age groups are actually at risk for serious illness. Or is it that if you are healthy and have no other illnesses then you may not be at increased risk, even if you are 71 years old, for example, Deputy State Epidemiologist Anders Wallensten has TT.

How should you find out?

– We are analyzing the Swedish cases and the diseases they have had and the like, in order to compare and see if this is the case that you are at higher risk from the age of 70.

The new message is welcomed by Professor Ingmar Skoog, Director of Agecap, Center for Aging and Health at the University of Gothenburg. Initially, he resorted to the rhetoric of authority.

– Suddenly, more than 70 years was the most dangerous disease. It runs counter to all the age-old research done in recent years, when you group everyone into a fragile group that needs protection from everyone else.

Today’s 70-year-olds are more attractive than ever, shows Agecap’s H70 studies that have been conducted since 1971. The studies have examined 70-year-olds born in different years, not before 1901 and not later. from 1944.

According to Skoog, there are big differences in intellectual function among youth ages 70 to 75 compared to 30 to 40 years ago, but physical ability is also significantly better.

– There we see great differences in the last 15 years.

Today’s 70-year-olds also have an increased reserve capacity to manage the disease.

– You are not as broken as a 70-year-old in the 1970s. Today’s 70-year-olds are the first to have lived under the welfare society, while those born in 1901 were unable to leave until they were 38-39. .

However, it is impossible to assume that older people are significantly overrepresented in covid-19 death statistics: almost 90 percent of the deceased are over 70 years old.

But instead of age itself, Ingmar Skoog wants to highlight, for example, dementia. According to the National Board of Health, about three-quarters of the more than 70 people who died in covid-19 have lived in a retirement home or received care at home.

– And we know that 90 percent of people living in nursing homes have dementia, says Ingmar Skoog.

– It turns out that those who die (within the age group) are very fragile.

Anders Wallensten, however, does not mean that you were too hard when you targeted more than 70 people.

– This is a new virus, so we follow the development of knowledge, he says.

– Before having this kind of data, it is difficult to set limits as sharp as possible if you have complete data.