Impact of environmental and individual factors on COVID-19 mortality in children and adolescents in Mexico: An observational study

Abstract

Background: During the Covid-19 pandemic, children and adolescents faced poverty, potentially dying from preventable causes, or missing out essential vaccines. The aim of this study was to assess potential environmental and individual factors associated to COVID-19 mortality in children and adolescents in Mexico. Methods: This cross-sectional study analysed the official data of 131,001 children under 10 years of age and adolescents between 10 and 19 years of age with COVID-19 disease, in Mexico. Participants were diagnosticated between March 2020 and June 13, 2021. The environmental variables such as malnutrition, vaccination coverage and social lag index were evaluated at the state level. Multilevel models were fitted to evaluate the association between environmental and individual factors and COVID-19 mortality. Findings: A total of 773 (0.6%) children and adolescents died due to COVID-19. Younger age (OR = 0.878, 95%CI: 0.869-0.888), diabetes (OR = 3.898, 95%CI: 2.596-5.851), immunosuppression (OR = 5.410, 95%CI: 4.088-7.158), obesity (OR = 1.876, 95%CI: 1.397-2.521), hypertension (OR = 1.906, 95%CI: 1.239-2.932), cardiovascular disease (OR = 2.288, 95%CI: 1.482-3.531), and chronic kidney disease (OR = 13.250, 95%CI: 9.066-19.350) were associated with mortality. COVID-19 mortality was directly associated with social lag index and malnutrition (ORvery high = 2.939, 95%CI: 1.111-7.775, and OR = 1.390, 95%CI: 1.073-1.802, respectively), and inversely associated with population density (OR = 0.374, 95%CI: 0.204-0.688). Finally, children and adolescents living in areas with a higher percentage of people with incomplete education (OR = 1.045, 95%CI: 1.011-1.081), of children of school age of 6-14 years who do not attend school (OR = 1.266, 95%CI: 1.032-1.554), and of illiterate population aged 15 and over (OR = 1.086, 95%CI: 0.999-1.179) were associated with a higher risk of COVID-19 mortality. Interpretation: Malnutrition, social lag index and population density are key factors to understand COVID-19 mortality in children and adolescents. Also, age and pre-existing comorbidities were also associated with worse COVID-19 prognosis.