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Author Spotlight: Advancements in Multiplex Detection of Respiratory Viruses
Published on: November 10, 2023
Impact of regional heterogeneity on the severity of COVID-19
Shinya Tsuzuki1, Yusuke Asai2, Nobuaki Matsunaga2
1AMR Clinical Reference Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Abstract:
The main objective of the study is to assess the impact of regional heterogeneity on the severity of COVID-19 in Japan. We included 27,865 cases registered between January 2020 and February 2021 in the COVID-19 Registry of Japan, to examine the relationship between the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) of COVID-19 patients on the day of admission and the prefecture where the patients live. A hierarchical Bayesian model was used to examine the random effect of each prefecture in addition to the patients' backgrounds. Additionally, we compared the results of two models; one model included the number of beds secured for COVID-19 patients in each prefecture as one of the fixed effects, and the other model did not. The results indicated that the prefecture had a substantial impact on the severity of COVID-19 on admission, even when considering the effect of the number of beds separately. Our analysis revealed a possible association between regional heterogeneity and increased/decreased risk of severe COVID-19 infection on admission. This heterogeneity was derived not only from the number of beds secured in each prefecture but also from other factors.
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