Analysis of Country-Level Risk Factors of COVID-19 Mortality Across Countries of Asia: A Generalised Estimating Equation Approach

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the death counts from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) across Asian countries by selecting 42 countries with a nonzero death count. Several studies have assessed personal-level factors that affect mortality rates in patients with COVID-19. However, the influence of country-level factors is still debatable. The results of a generalised estimating equation confirmed that the expected death counts across the countries in the middle quartile group of gross domestic product, upper quartile group of population density and lower quartile group of hospital bed count were higher than those in the countries in other quartile groups. The results further confirmed the positive association of the percentage of the population aged ≥65 years and time (day) with the death count. Visualisations and descriptive statistics showed that the death count increased over time across the Asian countries, with maximum death count occurring in the third quarter of the year 2020. These findings support the recommendation that countries with lower number of hospital beds per 1,000 persons, higher percentage of the population aged 65 years and older and middle and lower economies should take more precautions to reduce the death count from COVID-19.