Researchers analyzed data from nearly 84,000 twins and 33,000 spouses across multiple years to determine what factors predicted severe COVID-19 infection requiring hospitalization. The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found that genetic factors played only a modest role in determining hospitalization risk, contrary to earlier assumptions that genes significantly influenced infection severity.
The findings revealed that spouses were 3.6 times more likely to be hospitalized if their partner was also hospitalized, with 71 percent of hospitalized couples admitted within five days of each other. This suggested that shared living environments and exposure to the virus mattered more than genetic relationships. Twins of hospitalized twins did not show increased hospitalization risk, indicating that living conditions and household exposure may be more important predictors of severe COVID-19 than family genetics.
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