Elsevier

One Health

Volume 10, December 2020, 100174
One Health

Unexpected positive correlation between human development index and risk of infections and deaths of COVID-19 in Italy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.onehlt.2020.100174Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Human development index is positively correlated with infection and death rates of COVID-19;

  • Increase in human development index (HDI) results in 17.5448 and 39.6230 exponential increase in odds of infection and death, respectively

  • Regions with lower HDI consume more cigarettes, but have lower average annual gross salaries and smaller chronic diseases population

Abstract

In this analysis, we observed that human development index (an integrated index of life expectation, education and living standard) correlates with infection rate (proportion of confirmed cases among the population) and the fatality rate of COVID-19 in Italy based on data as of May 15, 2020. Further analysis showed that HDI is negatively correlated with cigarette consumption, whereas it is positively correlated with chronic disease and average annual gross salary. These factors may partially explain why unexpected positive correlation is observed between human development index and risk of infections and deaths of COVID-19 in Italy.

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