Abstract
Introduction With the pandemic of COVID-19, the number of confirmed cases and related deaths are increasing in the US. We aimed to understand the potential impact of health and demographic factors on the infection and mortality rates of COVID-19 at the population level.
Methods We collected total number of confirmed cases and deaths related to COVID-19 at the county level in the US from January 21, 2020 to April 23, 2020. We extracted health and demographic measures for each US county. Multivariable linear mixed effects models were used to investigate potential correlations of health and demographic characteristics with the infection and mortality rates of COVID-19 in US counties.
Results Our models showed that several health and demographic factors were positively correlated with the infection rate of COVID-19, such as low education level and percentage of Black. In contrast, several factors, including percentage of smokers and percentage of food insecure, were negatively correlated with the infection rate of COVID-19. While the number of days since first confirmed case and the infection rate of COVID-19 were negatively correlated with the mortality rate of COVID-19, percentage of elders (65 and above) and percentage of rural were positively correlated with the mortality rate of COVID-19.
Conclusions At the population level, health and demographic factors could impact the infection and mortality rates of COVID-19 in US counties.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding Statement
No external funding was received
Author Declarations
All relevant ethical guidelines have been followed; any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained and details of the IRB/oversight body are included in the manuscript.
Yes
All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived.
Yes
I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).
Yes
I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.
Yes
Data Availability
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and related deaths in each US counties were requested from the website of “1Point3Acres.com” (https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com). Health and demographic data are downloaded from United States Census Bureau (https://www.census.gov), USDA Economic Research Service (https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/county-level-data-sets/download-data/), and County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R, www.countyhealthranking.org).
https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/county-level-data-sets/download-data/