ArticleEuropean journal of epidemiology2021
Does death from Covid-19 arise from a multi-step process?
Article in European journal of epidemiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- The multistep pathogenic hypothesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is incompatible with the epidemiological data.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Multimorbidity as a multistage disease process.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Excess Mortality Calculations to Assess the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Concepts and Methodological Issues.American journal of public health · 2024Article
- On the evolution of concepts of causal and preventive interdependence in epidemiology in the late 20European journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
- Sporadic, late-onset, and multistage diseases.PNAS nexus · 2022Article
- Science's Response to CoVID-19.ChemMedChem · 2021Review
- Rapid Review on COVID-19, Work-Related Aspects, and Age Differences.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The Covid-19 death rate increases exponentially with age, and the main risk factors are having underlying conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, severe chronic respiratory disease and cancer. These characteristics are consistent with the multi-step model of disease. We applied this model to Covid-19 case fatality rates (CFRs) from China, South Korea, Italy, Spain and Japan. In all countries we found that a plot of log(CFR) against log(age) was approximately linear with a slope of about 5. We also conducted similar analyses for selected other respiratory diseases. SARS showed a similar log-log age-pattern to that of Covid-19, albeit with a lower slope, whereas seasonal and pandemic influenza showed quite different age-patterns. Thus, death from Covid-19 and SARS appears to follow a distinct age-pattern, consistent with a multi-step model of disease that in the case of Covid-19 is probably defined by comorbidities and age producing immune-related susceptibility.
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Registered trials
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