Mortality comparisons of COVID-19 with all-cause and non-communicable diseases in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta: lessons learned and forward planning
OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic has spread throughout the world, including Cyprus, Iceland and Malta. Considering the small population sizes of these three island countries, it was anticipated that COVID-19 would be adequately contained, and mortality would be low. This study aims to compare and c...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8059981 2023-05-15T16:46:43+02:00 Mortality comparisons of COVID-19 with all-cause and non-communicable diseases in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta: lessons learned and forward planning Cuschieri, Sarah Pallari, Elena Hatziyianni, Amalia Sigurvinsdottir, Rannveig Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora Sigurðardóttir, Árún Kristín 2021-04-21 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8059981/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.03.025 en eng The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8059981/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.03.025 © 2021 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. Public Health Original Research Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.03.025 2021-04-25T00:41:53Z OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic has spread throughout the world, including Cyprus, Iceland and Malta. Considering the small population sizes of these three island countries, it was anticipated that COVID-19 would be adequately contained, and mortality would be low. This study aims to compare and contrast COVID-19 mortality with mortality from all-causes and common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) over 8 months between these three islands. STUDY DESIGN: METHODS: Data were obtained from the Ministry of Health websites and COVID dashboards from Cyprus, Iceland and Malta. The case-fatality ratio (CFR) and years of life lost (YLLs) were calculated. Comparisons were made between the reported cases, deaths, CFR, YLLs, swabbing rates, restrictions and mitigation measures. RESULTS: Low COVID-19 case numbers and mortality rates were observed during the first wave and transition period in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta. The second wave saw a drastic increase in the number of confirmed cases and mortality rates, especially for Malta, with high CFR and YLLs. Similar restrictions and measures were evident across the three island countries. Results show that COVID-19 mortality was generally lower than mortality from NCDs. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights that small geographical and population size, along with similar restrictive measures, did not appear to have an advantage against the spread and mortality rate of COVID-19, especially during the second wave. Population density, an ageing population and social behaviours may play a role in the burden of COVID-19. It is recommended that a country-specific syndemic approach is used to deal with the local COVID-19 spread based on the population’s characteristics, behaviours and the presence of other pre-existing epidemics. Text Iceland PubMed Central (PMC) Public Health |
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Original Research Cuschieri, Sarah Pallari, Elena Hatziyianni, Amalia Sigurvinsdottir, Rannveig Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora Sigurðardóttir, Árún Kristín Mortality comparisons of COVID-19 with all-cause and non-communicable diseases in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta: lessons learned and forward planning |
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Original Research |
description |
OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic has spread throughout the world, including Cyprus, Iceland and Malta. Considering the small population sizes of these three island countries, it was anticipated that COVID-19 would be adequately contained, and mortality would be low. This study aims to compare and contrast COVID-19 mortality with mortality from all-causes and common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) over 8 months between these three islands. STUDY DESIGN: METHODS: Data were obtained from the Ministry of Health websites and COVID dashboards from Cyprus, Iceland and Malta. The case-fatality ratio (CFR) and years of life lost (YLLs) were calculated. Comparisons were made between the reported cases, deaths, CFR, YLLs, swabbing rates, restrictions and mitigation measures. RESULTS: Low COVID-19 case numbers and mortality rates were observed during the first wave and transition period in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta. The second wave saw a drastic increase in the number of confirmed cases and mortality rates, especially for Malta, with high CFR and YLLs. Similar restrictions and measures were evident across the three island countries. Results show that COVID-19 mortality was generally lower than mortality from NCDs. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights that small geographical and population size, along with similar restrictive measures, did not appear to have an advantage against the spread and mortality rate of COVID-19, especially during the second wave. Population density, an ageing population and social behaviours may play a role in the burden of COVID-19. It is recommended that a country-specific syndemic approach is used to deal with the local COVID-19 spread based on the population’s characteristics, behaviours and the presence of other pre-existing epidemics. |
format |
Text |
author |
Cuschieri, Sarah Pallari, Elena Hatziyianni, Amalia Sigurvinsdottir, Rannveig Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora Sigurðardóttir, Árún Kristín |
author_facet |
Cuschieri, Sarah Pallari, Elena Hatziyianni, Amalia Sigurvinsdottir, Rannveig Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora Sigurðardóttir, Árún Kristín |
author_sort |
Cuschieri, Sarah |
title |
Mortality comparisons of COVID-19 with all-cause and non-communicable diseases in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta: lessons learned and forward planning |
title_short |
Mortality comparisons of COVID-19 with all-cause and non-communicable diseases in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta: lessons learned and forward planning |
title_full |
Mortality comparisons of COVID-19 with all-cause and non-communicable diseases in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta: lessons learned and forward planning |
title_fullStr |
Mortality comparisons of COVID-19 with all-cause and non-communicable diseases in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta: lessons learned and forward planning |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mortality comparisons of COVID-19 with all-cause and non-communicable diseases in Cyprus, Iceland and Malta: lessons learned and forward planning |
title_sort |
mortality comparisons of covid-19 with all-cause and non-communicable diseases in cyprus, iceland and malta: lessons learned and forward planning |
publisher |
The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8059981/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.03.025 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Public Health |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8059981/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.03.025 |
op_rights |
© 2021 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.03.025 |
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Public Health |
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