BACKGROUND: The case fatality rate (CFR) is one of the most important measures for monitoring disease progression and evaluating appropriate policy health measures over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. To remove biases arising from the age structure of COVID-19 cases in international comparisons of the CFR, existing studies have relied mainly on direct standardization. OBJECTIVE: We propose and validate a synthetic indicator of COVID-19 fatality (SCFR) that improves its comparability across countries by adjusting for the age and sex structure of COVID-19 cases without relying on the arbitrary choice of a standard population. RESULTS: Contrary to what comparisons of the crude CFR suggest, differences in COVID-19 fatality across countries according to the proposed SCFR are not very stark. Importantly, once we adjust for the age structure of COVID-19 cases, the higher case fatality among men emerges as the main driver of international differences in COVID-19 CFR. CONCLUSION: The SCFR is a simple indicator that is useful for monitoring the fatality of SARS-CoV-2 mutations and the efficacy of health policy measures for COVID-19, including vaccination. CONTRIBUTIONS: 1) A simple synthetic indicator of COVID-19 fatality that improves its comparability across countries by adjusting for the age and sex structure of COVID-19 cases; 2) Evidence that sex differences in COVID-19 fatality drive international differences in the overall CFR.

GHIO Daniela;  BIGNAMI Simona; 

2025-01-08

SPRINGER NATURE

JRC120322

1443-2447 (online),   

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-022-09289-1,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC120322,   

10.1007/s12546-022-09289-1 (online),