Research Article

Effects of the Human Development Index on COVID-19 Mortality Rates in High-Income Countries

Lihui Zhou
Sophia University, Japan
* Corresponding author
John J. Puthenkalam
Sophia University, Japan
DOI icon 10.24018/ejdevelop.2022.2.3.104

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Submitted 2022-04-27
Published 2022-05-19

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Article Main Content

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a huge loss of life and impaired public health worldwide. The finding that countries with high human development indices (HDIs) is associated with higher death rates during COVID-19 reported in earlier research is confusing. To clarify this significant problem, we explored the correlations and associations between the COVID-19 mortality rate and HDI based on updated data (until April 1, 2022) in 41 high-income countries across the world. The outcomes demonstrate: (a) a strong negative correlation between COVID-19 mortality rate and HDI; and (b) a significant (p = 0.013) negative association between COVID-19 mortality rate and HDI after controlling for health heterogeneities including aging population, full vaccination rate, GDP per capita, UHC, out-of-pocket burden, and stringency index. This paper concludes that reductions in the COVID-19 mortality rate depend to a great extent on the enhancement of human development capacity. Therefore, to better protect global public health, improving human development capacity should be a vital priority for all countries, whether in the present or in the future.

Keywords: Aging Population, COVID-19 Mortality Rate, Full Vaccination Rate, HDI

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