Background The number of persons infected with COVID-19 continues to increase with deaths reported daily across the globe. High income countries such as the US, the UK, Italy and Belgium have reported high COVID-19 related deaths but low-and-middle-income countries have recorded fewer deaths despite having poor healthcare system. This study aimed to investigate the association between malaria prevalence and COVID-19 mortality. Methods An ecological study was conducted with data from 195 countries. Spearman’s correlation was used to test the association between the population variables and COVID-19 mortality. Generalized linear model with Poisson distribution was used to determine the significant predictors of COVID-19 mortality. Results There was a significant positive correlation between median age, life expectancy, 65+ mortality and COVID-19 mortality while malaria prevalence, sex ratio and cardiovascular mortality were negatively correlated with COVID-19 mortality. Malaria prevalence, life expectancy and mortality rate were significant on multivariate regression analysis. Conclusion The results of this study support the hypotheses that there are reduced COVID-19 deaths in malaria endemic countries, although the results need to be proved further by clinical trials.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Mortality, malaria, Prevalence, Ecological study, 【초록키워드】 clinical trials, Sex, Italy, death, mortality rate, predictor, Belgium, association, Endemic, Poisson distribution, COVID-19 mortality, Healthcare system, Support, regression analysis, median age, positive correlation, Spearman’s correlation, variable, Linear model, country, Result, was used, globe, reported, conducted, reduced, determine, correlated, hypothese, recorded, ecological, Generalized, infected with COVID-19, with COVID-19, 【제목키워드】 association, COVID-19 mortality,