COVID-19 income of (im)migrants in a valencian hospital: a retrospective longitudinal study of medical records

BACKGROUND // Social determinants of health (SDH) refer to the circumstances in which people are born, grow, work, live and age, including the wider set of forces and systems that influence living conditions. SDH produce patterns of disease distribution in societies. There is no reason to believe that this is not the case for COVID-19. The aim of this study was to analyse the time course of hospital admissions for COVID-19 in 2020 among individuals according to their country of origin. METHODS // A retrospective longitudinal study was conducted using the medical records of individuals hospitalised at the Doctor Peset Hospital in Valencia. The cases were divided into those from a European Union country (community cases) and those from other countries (non-community cases). Differences between groups were analysed using the chi-squared test and Student’s t-test. A multiple logistic regression model was used to examine the association between hospitalisation and mortality. The strength of associations between country of origin and the variables of mortality and hospital admission rate were assessed using Odds Ratio (OR). A significance level of p-value<0.05 was set. RESULTS // 22.4% of the sample were people of non-Community origin. Of these, 78.3% were from Latin American countries. The mean age of the non-community individuals was approximately seventeen years younger (95% CI 15.2-19.7; p-value<0.01). Within the first six months of the year, 40.2% of community cases and 14.6% of non-community cases were hospitalised. The odds of hospitalisation in the second half of the year were three times higher for non-community cases (OR 3.7; 95% CI 1.9-7.4, p-value<0.01). CONCLUSIONS // There may have been a higher likelihood of infection among the foreign population during the second half of 2020. The social stratum occupied by migrants may lead to differential exposure, possibly related to the measures implemented to contain the pandemic.