Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
SHR Neuro Krebs Kardio Lipid Stoffw Microb
Riedmann, U; Chalupka, A; Richter, L; Sprenger, M; Rauch, W; Krause, R; Willeit, P; Schennach, H; Benka, B; Werber, D; Høeg, TB; Ioannidis, JP; Pilz, S.
COVID-19 case fatality rate and infection fatality rate from 2020 to 2023: Nationwide analysis in Austria.
J Infect Public Health. 2025; 18(4):102698
Doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2025.102698
Web of Science
PubMed
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FullText_MUG
- Führende Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz
- Pilz Stefan
- Riedmann Uwe
- Co-Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz
- Chalupka Alena
- Krause Robert
- Sprenger Martin
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- Abstract:
- BACKGROUND: Comprehensive analyses of COVID-19 case fatality rates (CFRs) and infection fatality rates (IFRs) that span the entire pandemic are not yet available but critical to retrospectively evaluate the COVID-19 disease burden and its related public health policies. We used nationwide individual participant data from Austria, the continental country with the highest SARS-CoV-2 testing rate per capita, to calculate COVID-19 CFR and estimate IFR covering the entire pandemic. METHODS: This retrospective observational study included all Austrian residents and covered the time from February 2020 to May 2023, examining CFRs overall, monthly, and during dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant periods. CFRs were calculated for the whole population and stratified according to immunization status (presence of previous vaccination and/or infection), age, gender and nursing home residency. We additionally estimated the IFRs based on estimations of undocumented infections using a test positivity model. RESULTS: The overall CFR of 30-day COVID-19 mortality was 0.31 % but varied depending on month, with the highest being 5.9 % in April 2020 and the lowest 0.07 % in January 2022. The variant periods reflected this trend of decreasing CFR, with the highest for Wuhan-Hu-1 (2.05 %) and the lowest for BA.1 (0.08 %). Overall CFRs were particularly high in the group without any previous immunizing event (0.67 %), the elderly (85 + year group: 7.88 %) and in nursing home residents (7.92 %). Nursing home residents accounted for 30.82 % of all COVID-19 deaths while representing only 1.22 % of diagnosed infections. Total SARS-CoV-2 infections were estimated to be almost double than confirmed cases with a corresponding overall IFR of 0.16 %. CONCLUSION: This estimation of nationwide CFR and IFR across the entirety of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic gives crucial insights into the period-dependent variability of the severity of diagnosed COVID-19 cases and its risk factors. Our findings further underline the disproportionate severity of COVID-19 among the elderly and especially nursing home residents.
- Find related publications in this database (using NLM MeSH Indexing)
- Humans - administration & dosage
- COVID-19 - mortality, epidemiology
- Austria - epidemiology
- Male - administration & dosage
- Female - administration & dosage
- Retrospective Studies - administration & dosage
- Aged - administration & dosage
- Middle Aged - administration & dosage
- Aged, 80 and over - administration & dosage
- SARS-CoV-2 - administration & dosage
- Adult - administration & dosage
- Nursing Homes - statistics & numerical data
- Young Adult - administration & dosage
- Adolescent - administration & dosage
- Find related publications in this database (Keywords)
- SARS-CoV-2
- COVID-19
- Case fatality rate
- Infection fatality rate
- Austria
- Nationwide