How Does Living with Children Affect Adults' Risk for COVID-19 and Its Outcomes?

As children are less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, often are asymptomatic, and rarely develop severe COVID-19, their role in disease spread is unclear. Do adults living with children run higher risks for COVID-19–related outcomes? Researchers in England analyzed national data on COVID-19 and individual health status between February and December 2020 in a study involving >9.3 million adults aged 18 to 65 and almost 2.7 million aged >65. Linked data on household members showed that 37% of younger adults and 3% of older adults lived with children.

During the pandemic's first wave (February–August 2020), COVID-19–related outcomes (infection, hospital admission, ICU admission, and death) were not appreciably increased among adults living …