The global case fatality rate of coronavirus disease 2019 by continents and national income: A meta-analysis
Authors
Ramy Abou Ghayda ; Keum Hwa Lee ; Young Joo Han ; Seohyun Ryu ; Sung Hwi Hong ; Sojung Yoon ; Gwang Hum Jeong ; Jae Won Yang ; Hyo Jeong Lee ; Jinhee Lee ; Jun Young Lee ; Maria Effenberger ; Michael Eisenhut ; Andreas Kronbichler ; Marco Solmi ; Han Li ; Louis Jacob ; Ai Koyanagi ; Joaquim Radua ; Myung Bae Park ; Sevda Aghayeva ; Mohamed L C B Ahmed ; Abdulwahed Al Serouri ; Humaid O Al-Shamsi ; Mehrdad Amir-Behghadami ; Oidov Baatarkhuu ; Hyam Bashour ; Anastasiia Bondarenko ; Adrian Camacho-Ortiz ; Franz Castro ; Horace Cox ; Hayk Davtyan ; Kirk Douglas ; Elena Dragioti ; Shahul Ebrahim ; Martina Ferioli ; Harapan Harapan ; Saad I Mallah ; Aamer Ikram ; Shigeru Inoue ; Slobodan Jankovic ; Umesh Jayarajah ; Milos Jesenak ; Pramath Kakodkar ; Yohannes Kebede ; Meron Kifle ; David Koh ; Visnja K Males ; Katarzyna Kotfis ; Sulaiman Lakoh ; Lowell Ling ; Jorge Llibre-Guerra ; Masaki Machida ; Richard Makurumidze ; Mohammed A Mamun ; Izet Masic ; Hoang Van Minh ; Sergey Moiseev ; Thomas Nadasdy ; Chen Nahshon ; Silvio A Ñamendys-Silva ; Blaise N Yongsi ; Henning B Nielsen ; Zita A Nodjikouambaye ; Ohnmar Ohnmar ; Atte Oksanen ; Oluwatomi Owopetu ; Konstantinos Parperis ; Gonzalo E Perez ; Krit Pongpirul ; Marius Rademaker ; Sandro Rosa ; Ranjit Sah ; Dina Sallam ; Patrick Schober ; Tanu Singhal ; Silva Tafaj ; Irene Torres ; J Smith Torres-Roman ; Dimitrios Tsartsalis ; Jadamba Tsolmon ; Laziz Tuychiev ; Batric Vukcevic ; Guy Wanghi ; Uwe Wollina ; Ren-He Xu ; Lin Yang ; Zoubida Zaidi ; Lee Smith ; Jae Il Shin
Citation
JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY, Vol.94(6) : 2402-2413, 2022-06
Asia ; COVID-19* / epidemiology ; Europe / epidemiology ; Humans ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Socioeconomic Factors
Keywords
COVID-19 ; case fatality rate ; continents ; proportion meta-analysis
Abstract
The aim of this study is to provide a more accurate representation of COVID-19's case fatality rate (CFR) by performing meta-analyses by continents and income, and by comparing the result with pooled estimates. We used multiple worldwide data sources on COVID-19 for every country reporting COVID-19 cases. On the basis of data, we performed random and fixed meta-analyses for CFR of COVID-19 by continents and income according to each individual calendar date. CFR was estimated based on the different geographical regions and levels of income using three models: pooled estimates, fixed- and random-model. In Asia, all three types of CFR initially remained approximately between 2.0% and 3.0%. In the case of pooled estimates and the fixed model results, CFR increased to 4.0%, by then gradually decreasing, while in the case of random-model, CFR remained under 2.0%. Similarly, in Europe, initially, the two types of CFR peaked at 9.0% and 10.0%, respectively. The random-model results showed an increase near 5.0%. In high-income countries, pooled estimates and fixed-model showed gradually increasing trends with a final pooled estimates and random-model reached about 8.0% and 4.0%, respectively. In middle-income, the pooled estimates and fixed-model have gradually increased reaching up to 4.5%. in low-income countries, CFRs remained similar between 1.5% and 3.0%. Our study emphasizes that COVID-19 CFR is not a fixed or static value. Rather, it is a dynamic estimate that changes with time, population, socioeconomic factors, and the mitigatory efforts of individual countries.