MORTALITY TRENDS IN CROATIA IN THE FIRST TWO DECADES OF THE 21st CENTURY

Negative demographic trends in Croatia (natural decrease, negative net migration and population aging) are increasingly influencing socio-economic development of the country. Already in early 21st century, the long term decrease of live births and the increase of deaths were recognized as destabilizing factors of population development in Croatia. After the Croatian accession to the EU, the concerns regarding future demographic development of the country raised even more due to intensive emigration to other EU countries, which coincided with the historically low birth rates and high death rates. The focus of this paper is on mortality trends in Croatia in the first two decades of the 21st century. In this period, mortality in Croatia was influenced by different socio-economic, demographic, and epidemiological factors. Given the lack of recent papers dealing with mortality in Croatia, the main aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the changes in selected mortality indicators and contribute to the discussion on recent mortality trends in Croatia. The results of this research indicate that Croatia experienced some positive changes regarding mortality (increase of life expectancy at birth and decrease of infant mortality rates in the first period, in particular), but, some of the trends are not favourable, particularly the changes in the causes of death. Although improvements were observed regarding the share of deaths caused by the diseases of the circulatory system, there was a notable increase in deaths caused by the endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases which can be attributed to the unhealthy lifestyle and various behavioural factors.

Delay-Adjusted Age-Specific COVID-19 Case Fatality Rates in a High Testing Setting: South Korea, February 2020 to February 2021.

In South Korea, a country with a high coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) testing rate, a total of 87,324 COVID-19 cases, including 1562 deaths, have been recorded as of 23 February 2021. This study assessed the delay-adjusted COVID-19 case fatality risk (CFR), including data from the second and third waves. A statistical method was applied to the data from 20 February 2021 through 23 February 2021 to minimize bias in the crude CFR, accounting for the survival interval as the lag time between disease onset and death. The resulting overall delay-adjusted CFR was 1.97% (95% credible interval: 1.94-2.00%). The delay-adjusted CFR was highest among adults aged ≥80 years and 70-79 years (22.88% and 7.09%, respectively). The cumulative incidence rate was highest among individuals aged ≥80 years and 60-69 years. The cumulative mortality rate was highest among individuals aged ≥80 years and 70-79 years (47 and 12 per million, respectively). In South Korea, older adults are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19 with a high death rate, although the incidence rate among younger individuals is relatively high. Interventions to prevent COVID-19 should target older adults to minimize the number of deaths.

Do not neglect SARS-CoV-2 hospitalization and fatality risks in the middle-aged adult population.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed at estimating the SARS-CoV-2 infection hospitalization (IHR) and infection fatality ratios (IFR) in France. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A serosurvey was conducted in 9782 subjects from the two French regions with the highest incidence of COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic and coupled with surveillance data. RESULTS: IHR and IFR were 2.7% and 0.49% overall. Both were higher in men and increased exponentially with age. The relative risks of hospitalization and death were 2.1 (95% CI: 1.9-2.3) and 3.8 (2.4-4.2) per 10-year increase, meaning that IHR and IFR approximately doubled every 10 and 5 years, respectively. They were dramatically high in the very elderly (80-90 years: IHR: 26%, IFR: 9.2%), and also substantial in younger adults (40-50 years: IHR: 0.98%, IFR: 0.042%). CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the need for comprehensive preventive measures to help reduce the spread of the virus, even in young or middle-aged adults.