Highest COVID-19 Death Rate for 2020 Seen in the Most Urban Areas

TUESDAY, Oct. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The age-adjusted death rate for COVID-19 was highest for the most urban areas in 2020, according to an October data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics.

Sally C. Curtin and Melonie Heron, Ph.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, present COVID-19 death rates for rural and urban areas in 2020 by sex and age group. COVID-19 death rates were presented for six categories of urbanicity, ranging from the most urban to the most rural.

The researchers found that the age-adjusted death rate for COVID-19 in 2020 was highest for the most urban areas (large central metropolitan) and lowest for medium metropolitan areas (97.7 versus 75.0 per 100,000). For males, the highest age-adjusted COVID-19 death rate was seen in the most urban areas (129.3 per 100,000), while the highest rates for females were seen in the most urban and most rural (noncore) areas (72.8 and 73.8, respectively, per 100,000). For those aged younger than 65 years, males living in the most urban areas had the highest COVID-19 death rates, while the rates were highest in the most rural areas for females. For those aged 65 years and older, males had the highest COVID-19 death rates in the most urban areas, while females had the highest rates in the most urban and most rural areas.

"These results show how a more detailed measure of urbanicity can result in a more precise analysis of COVID-19 death rates than is possible with the typical urban-rural dichotomy," the authors write.

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