Shahbazi F, Khazaei S
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health.
Research Center for Health Sciences, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.
New Microbes New Infect. 2020 Nov;38:100762. doi: 10.1016/j.nmni.2020.100762. Epub 2020 Sep 16.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Epidemiological and clinical features of patients with COVID-19 have been examined but socio-economic aspects have been less studied. This study aimed to identify the role of the human development index (HDI) in the incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19 worldwide. Information on the incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19 was obtained from the Worldometer and data about the HDI 2019 were obtained from the World Bank database. Correlations between incidence, mortality rates and HDI parameters were assessed using linear regression. We calculated the concentration index to measure socio-economic inequality in COVID-19-related mortality and incidence. A linear regression analysis showed a direct significant correlation between the incidence and mortality rate of COVID-19 and HDI at the global level. The concentration index was positive for incidence rate (0.62) and mortality rate (0.69) of COVID-19, indicating the higher concentration of the rates among groups with high HDI. The high incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19 in countries with high and very high HDI are remarkable and should be the top priority for interventions by global health policy-makers. Health programmes should be provided to reduce the burden of this disease in regions with high incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19.
2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）是一种由新发现的冠状病毒引起的传染病。COVID-19患者的流行病学和临床特征已得到研究，但社会经济方面的研究较少。本研究旨在确定人类发展指数（HDI）在全球COVID-19发病率和死亡率中的作用。COVID-19发病率和死亡率的信息来自世界ometers网站，2019年HDI的数据来自世界银行数据库。使用线性回归评估发病率、死亡率与HDI参数之间的相关性。我们计算了浓度指数，以衡量COVID-19相关死亡率和发病率中的社会经济不平等。线性回归分析表明，在全球层面，COVID-19的发病率和死亡率与HDI之间存在直接显著相关性。COVID-19发病率（0.62）和死亡率（0.69）的浓度指数为正，表明这些比率在高HDI组中更为集中。高HDI和非常高HDI国家中COVID-19的高发病率和死亡率值得关注，应成为全球卫生政策制定者干预的首要重点。应提供卫生项目，以减轻COVID-19发病率和死亡率高的地区的疾病负担。
