Correlates of the country differences in the infection and mortality rates during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from Bayesian model averaging

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in great discrepancies in both infection and mortality rates between countries. Besides the biological and epidemiological factors, a multitude of social and economic criteria also influenced the extent to which these discrepancies appeared. Consequently, there is an a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2022-05, Vol.12 (1), p.7099-11, Article 7099
Main Authors: Stojkoski, Viktor, Utkovski, Zoran, Jolakoski, Petar, Tevdovski, Dragan, Kocarev, Ljupcho
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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704/844/2787
704/844/843
Bayes Theorem
Bayesian analysis
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Economics
Epidemiology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Infections
Influenza, Human
Mortality
multidisciplinary
Pandemics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Socioeconomics
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Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in great discrepancies in both infection and mortality rates between countries. Besides the biological and epidemiological factors, a multitude of social and economic criteria also influenced the extent to which these discrepancies appeared. Consequently, there is an active debate regarding the critical socio-economic and health factors that correlate with the infection and mortality rates outcome of the pandemic. Here, we leverage Bayesian model averaging techniques and country level data to investigate whether 28 variables, which describe a diverse set of health and socio-economic characteristics, correlate with the final number of infections and deaths during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. We show that only a few variables are able to robustly correlate with these outcomes. To understand the relationship between the potential correlates in explaining the infection and death rates, we create a Jointness Space. Using this space, we conclude that the extent to which each variable is able to provide a credible explanation for the COVID-19 infections/mortality outcome varies between countries because of their heterogeneous features.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-10894-6