IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i23p16074-d990067.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health Benefits of Residence at Moderate Altitude Do Not Reduce COVID-19 Mortality

Author

Listed:
  • Johannes Burtscher

    (Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Lausanne, CH-1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
    Institute of Sport Sciences, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland)

  • Gregoire P. Millet

    (Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Lausanne, CH-1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
    Institute of Sport Sciences, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland)

  • Barbara Leitner

    (Directorate Population, Statistics Austria, A-1110 Vienna, Austria)

  • Martin Burtscher

    (Department of Sport Science, University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
    Austrian Society for Alpine and High-Altitude Medicine, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria)

Abstract

Moderate altitude (1000–2000 m above sea level) residence is emerging as a protective factor from the mortality of various causes, including of cardiovascular diseases. Conversely, mortality from certain respiratory diseases is higher at these altitudes than in lowlands. These divergent outcomes could indicate either beneficial or detrimental effects of altitude on the mortality of COVID-19 that primarily infects the respiratory tract but results in multi-organ damage. Previous epidemiological data indeed suggest divergent outcomes of moderate to high altitude residence in various countries. Confounding factors, such as variations in the access to clinical facilities or selection biases of investigated populations, may contribute to the equivocation of these observations. We interrogated a dataset of the complete population of an Alpine country in the center of Europe with relatively similar testing and clinical support conditions across altitude-levels of residence (up to around 2000 m) to assess altitude-dependent mortality from COVID-19 throughout 2020. While a reduced all-cause mortality was confirmed for people living higher than 1000 m, no differences in the mortality from COVID-19 between the lowest and the highest altitude regions were observed for the overall population and the population older than 60 years as well. Conversely, COVID-19 mortality seems to have been reduced in the very old (>85 years) women at moderate altitudes.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes Burtscher & Gregoire P. Millet & Barbara Leitner & Martin Burtscher, 2022. "Health Benefits of Residence at Moderate Altitude Do Not Reduce COVID-19 Mortality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-7, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:16074-:d:990067
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16074/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16074/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Esteban Ortiz-Prado & Katherine Simbaña-Rivera & Raul Fernandez-Naranjo & Jorge Eduardo Vásconez & Aquiles R. Henriquez-Trujillo & Alexander Paolo Vallejo-Janeta & Ismar A. Rivera-Olivero & Tannya Loz, 2022. "SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load Analysis at Low and High Altitude: A Case Study from Ecuador," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-10, June.
    2. Ennio Cascetta & Ilaria Henke & Luigi Di Francesco, 2021. "The Effects of Air Pollution, Sea Exposure and Altitude on COVID-19 Hospitalization Rates in Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-11, January.
    3. Jeongeun Hwang & Miso Jang & Namkug Kim & Seunghyun Choi & Yeon-Mok Oh & Joon Beom Seo, 2018. "Positive association between moderate altitude and chronic lower respiratory disease mortality in United States counties," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(7), pages 1-10, July.
    4. Karla Romero Starke & René Mauer & Ethel Karskens & Anna Pretzsch & David Reissig & Albert Nienhaus & Anna Lene Seidler & Andreas Seidler, 2021. "The Effect of Ambient Environmental Conditions on COVID-19 Mortality: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-20, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dusan Jandacka & Daniela Durcanska, 2021. "Seasonal Variation, Chemical Composition, and PMF-Derived Sources Identification of Traffic-Related PM 1 , PM 2.5 , and PM 2.5–10 in the Air Quality Management Region of Žilina, Slovakia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-23, September.
    2. Weerawat Ounsaneha & Orapin Laosee & Cheerawit Rattanapan, 2024. "Influence of Environmental Risk Exposure on the Determinants of COVID-19 Booster Vaccination in an Urban Thai Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(6), pages 1-13, June.
    3. Godwin Attah Obande & Ahmad Ibrahim Bagudo & Suharni Mohamad & Zakuan Zainy Deris & Azian Harun & Chan Yean Yean & Ismail Aziah & Kirnpal Kaur Banga Singh, 2021. "Current State of COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa: Lessons for Today and the Future," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-15, September.
    4. Jesús Castilla & Ujué Fresán & Camino Trobajo-Sanmartín & Marcela Guevara, 2021. "Altitude and SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the First Pandemic Wave in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-8, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:16074-:d:990067. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.