The Contribution of the Age Distribution of Cases to COVID-19 Case Fatality Across Countries : A Nine-Country Demographic Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is wide variation in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case-fatality rates (CFRs) across countries, leading to uncertainty about the true lethality of the disease. A large part of this variation may be due to the ages of individuals who are tested and identified.

Objective

To measure the contribution of distortions from the age distributions of confirmed cases to CFRs within and across populations.

Design

Cross-sectional demographic study using aggregate data on COVID-19 cases and deaths by age.

Setting

Population-based data from China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.

Participants

All individuals with confirmed COVID-19, as reported by each country as of 19 April 2020 (

SUBMITTER: Sudharsanan N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7397549 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature