Excess deaths reveal unequal impact of Covid-19 in Ecuador

Bibliographic Data

ID21879002
AuthorsLeticia Cuéllar (0000-0002-4159-3223, Los Alamos National Laboratory, corresponding author), Irene Torres (0000-0002-0516-3090, Fundación Octaedro, Quito, Ecuador), Ethan Romero-Severson (0000-0002-8082-1225, Los Alamos National Laboratory), Riya Mahesh (0000-0003-1489-5418, Los Alamos National Laboratory), Nathaniel Ortega (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Sarah Pungitore (0000-0001-5782-6741, Los Alamos National Laboratory), Ruian Ke (0000-0001-5307-8934, Los Alamos National Laboratory), Nicolas Hengartner (0000-0002-4157-134X, Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Year2021
Volume6
Issue9
Pagese006446
Publication date2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBMJ Global Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2059-7908 • E-ISSN: 2059-7908
PublisherBMJ (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006446
PMID34583975
OpenAlexW3203259569
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited5

Latin America has struggled to control the transmission of COVID-19. Comparison of excess death (ED) rates during the pandemic reveals that Ecuador is among the highest impacted countries. In this analysis, we update our previous findings with the most complete all-cause mortality records available for 2020, disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity and geography. Our study shows that in 2020, Ecuador had a 64% ED rate (95% CI 63% to 65%) or 64% more deaths than expected. Men had a higher ED rate, 75% (95% CI 73% to 76%), than women’s 51% (95% CI 49% to 52%), and this pattern of higher EDs for men than women held for most age groups. The only exception was the 20–29 age group, where women had 19% more deaths, compared to 10% more deaths for men, but that difference is not statistically significant. The analysis provides striking evidence of the lack of COVID-19 diagnostic testing in Ecuador: the confirmed COVID-19 deaths in 2020 accounted for only 21% of total EDs. Our significant finding is that indigenous populations, who typically account for about 5% of the deaths, show almost four times the ED rate of the majority mestizo group. Indigenous women in each age group have higher ED rates than the general population and, in ages between 20 and 49 years, they have higher ED rates than indigenous men. Indigenous women in the age group 20–29 years had an ED rate of 141%, which is commensurate to the ED rate of indigenous women older than 40 years

Age groups · Disease · Ethnic group · Geography · Indigenous · Latin Americans · Mortality rate · Pandemic · Population · Sociology · COVID-19 and healthcare impacts · COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Demography · Medicine · Gerontology · Internal Medicine

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