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Boletín médico del Hospital Infantil de México
versão impressa ISSN 1665-1146
Resumo
GONZALEZ-GARCIA, Nadia et al. International heterogeneity in coronavirus disease 2019 pediatric mortality rates. Bol. Med. Hosp. Infant. Mex. [online]. 2021, vol.78, n.1, pp.24-28. Epub 24-Mar-2021. ISSN 1665-1146. https://doi.org/10.24875/bmhim.20000291.
Background:
Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is infrequent in children and shows a mortality rate of around 0.08%. This study aims to explore international differences in the pediatric mortality rate.
Methods:
We analyzed several countries with populations over 5 million that report disaggregated data of COVID-19 deaths by quinquennial or decennial age groups. Data were extracted from COVID-19 cases and deaths by age database, National Ministeries of Health, and the World Health Organization.
Results:
We included 23 countries in the analysis. Pediatric mortality varied from 0 to 12.1 deaths per million children of the corresponding age group, with the highest rate in Peru. In most countries, deaths were more frequent in the 0-4-year-old age group, except for Brazil. The pediatric/general COVID-19 mortality showed a great variation and ranged from 0% (Republic of Korea) to 10.4% (India). Pediatric and pediatric/general COVID mortality correlates strongly with 2018 neonatal mortality (r = 0.77, p < 0.001; and r = 0.88, p < 0.001, respectively), while shows a moderate or no correlation (r = 0.47, p = 0.02; and r = 0.19, p = 0.38, respectively) with COVID-19 mortality in the general population.
Conclusions:
International heterogeneity in pediatric COVID-19 mortality importantly parallels historical neonatal mortality. Neonatal mortality is a well-known index of the quality of a country’s health system, which points to the importance of social determinants of health in pediatric COVID-19 mortality disparities. This issue should be further explored.
Palavras-chave : Coronavirus disease 2019; Mortality; Infant; Child; Adolescent; Geographic location.