October 22, 2020

The Confounded Crude Case-Fatality Rates (CFR) for COVID-19 Hide More than They Reveal—a Comparison of Age-Specific and Age-Adjusted CFRs between Seven Countries

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Public Health Policy and Practice

Keywords (Tags): mortality

• A comparative analysis of the COVID-19 case-fatality rates (CFR) of seven countries suggests that age structure of cases could account for the wide variation of CFRs among countries. The crude country-level CFRs ranged from 0.82% (Israel) to 14.2% (Italy), resulting in a highest to lowest crude CFR ratio of 17.3. Meanwhile, the ratio of lowest to highest age-adjusted ratio is 2.57.

Green et al. (Oct 21, 2020). The Confounded Crude Case-Fatality Rates (CFR) for COVID-19 Hide More than They Reveal—a Comparison of Age-Specific and Age-Adjusted CFRs between Seven Countries. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241031