COVID-19 mortality among migrants living in Italy
Authors
Marco Canevelli, Luigi Palmieri, Valeria Raparelli, Ornella Punzo, Chiara Donfrancesco, Cinzia Lo Noce, Nicola Vanacore, Silvio Brusaferro, Graziano Onder, and the Italian National Institute of Health COVID-19 Mortality Group
Abstract
We aimed to compare COVID-19-specific and all-cause mortality rates among natives and migrants in Italy and to investigate the clinical characteristics of individuals dying with COVID-19 by native/migrant status.
The mortality rates and detailed clinical characteristics of natives and migrants dying with COVID-19 were explored by considering the medical charts of a representative sample of patients deceased in Italian hospitals (n=2,687). The migrant or native status was assigned based on the individual’s country of birth. The expected all-cause mortality among natives and migrants living in Italy was derived by the last available (2018) dataset provided by the Italian National Institute of Statistics.
Overall, 68 individuals with a migration background were identified. The proportions of natives and migrants among the COVID-19-related deaths (97.5% and 2.5%, respectively) were similar to the relative all-cause mortality rates estimated in Italy in 2018 (97.4% and 2.6%, respectively). The clinical phenotype of migrants dying with COVID-19 was similar to that of natives except for the younger age at death.
International migrants living in Italy do not have a mortality advantage for COVID-19 and are exposed to the risk of poor outcomes as their native counterparts.
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