The association between various indicators of hospital capacity, age category, and the number of screening tests performed with case fatality rate and recovery rate during the COVID-19 disease pandemic

J Prev Med Hyg. 2021 Jul 30;62(2):E261-E269. doi: 10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2021.62.2.1569. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19-related deaths are growing rapidly around the world, especially in Europe and the United States.

Purpose: In this study we attempt to measure the association of these variables with case fatality rate (CFR) and recovery rate (RR) using up-to-date data from around the world.

Methods: Data were collected from eight global databases. According to the raw data of countries, the CFR and RR and their relationship with different predictors was compared for countries with 1,000 or more cases of COVID-19 confirmed cases.

Results: There were no significant correlation between the CFR and number of hospital beds per 1,000 people, proportion of population aged 65 and older ages, and the number of computed tomography per one million inhabitants. Furthermore, based on the continents-based subgroup univariate regression analysis, the population (R2 = 0.37, P = 0.047), GPD (R2 = 0.80, P < 0.001), number of ICU Beds per 100,000 people (R2 = 0.93, P = 0.04), and number of CT per one million inhabitants (R2 = 0.78, P = 0.04) were significantly correlated with CFR in America. Moreover, the income-based subgroups analysis showed that the gross domestic product (R2 = 0.30, P = 0.001), number of ICU Beds per 100,000 people (R2 = 0.23, P = 0.008), and the number of ventilator (R2 = 0.46, P = 0.01) had significant correlation with CFR in high-income countries.

Conclusions: The level of country's preparedness, testing capacity, and health care system capacities also are among the important predictors of both COVID-19 associated mortality and recovery. Thus, providing up-to-date information on the main predictors of COVID-19 associated mortality and recovery will hopefully improve various countries hospital resource allocation, testing capacities, and level of preparedness.

Keywords: COVID-19; Case fatality rate (CFR); Hospital resource allocation; Recovery rate (RR).

MeSH terms

  • Age Distribution
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • COVID-19 / complications
  • COVID-19 / epidemiology*
  • COVID-19 / mortality*
  • COVID-19 Testing / statistics & numerical data*
  • Comorbidity
  • Delivery of Health Care / standards*
  • Europe / epidemiology
  • Hospital Bed Capacity*
  • Humans
  • Pandemics*
  • Resource Allocation*
  • SARS-CoV-2