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Associations of the COVID-19 burden and various comorbidities of different ethnic groups in Israel: a cross-sectional study

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Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is highly transmissible between human beings. We examined differences in the core families with COVID-19 severity and mortality and comorbidities between Arab and Jews and explored the factors associated with COVID-19 severity and mortality to find a genetic component. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 2240 COVID-19 patients (> 18 years of age) randomly selected by online panels and questionnaires in the native language (Hebrew or Arabic) during March 2021–June 2022. Multivariable linear regression models were used to assess correlations with COVID-19 disease severity and mortality. Overall, 1549 (69%) were Arabs and 691 (31%) were Jews. The proportion of participants who died from COVID-19 was higher among Arabs compared with Jews (66% vs. 59%), P < 0.001. The mean number of deaths from COVID-19 and patients with severe COVID-19 was higher in ultra-Orthodox Jewish, non-academic core families and those who lived in the city residence compared with secular, academic core families and who live in the village residence, P < 0.001. A multivariable linear regression model showed a significant association between metabolic, kidney, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases with COVID-19 severity (B coefficient − 0.43, B coefficient − 0.53, B coefficient − 0.53, B coefficient − 0.42, respectively) and COVID-19 mortality (B coefficient − 0.51, B coefficient − 0.64, B coefficient − 0.67, B coefficient − 0.34, respectively), P < 0.001. COVID-19 severity and mortality were highly associated with comorbidities, ethnicity, social and environmental factors. Furthermore, we believe that genetic factors also contribute to the increase in COVID-19 severity and mortality and the differences rates of these between Arabs and Jews in Israel.

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Individual-level data cannot be publicly available due to legal and ethical restrictions. Aggregative data will be provided upon a reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Aliza Amiel and Wasef Na’amnih are equal contribution.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing Sciences, The Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffa, 2 Rabenu Yerucham St., P.O.B 8401, 61083, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Mahdi Tarabeih, Aliza Amiel & Wasef Na’amnih

  2. Internal Medicine C, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba, Israel

    Ori Perelmutter & Yona Kitay-Cohen

  3. Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Yona Kitay-Cohen

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Wasef Na’amnih

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  1. Mahdi Tarabeih
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  4. Aliza Amiel
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Contributions

MT and AA did conceptualization. MT and WN done methodology. WN and MT performed formal analysis and investigation and writing—original draft preparation. All authors done writing—review, and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mahdi Tarabeih.

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Competing interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethics approval

The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo (Protocol number 2021-1041); all procedures were performed in accordance with local guidelines and regulations.

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The participants were given a detailed explanation of the study in their native language (Arabic or Hebrew) and were asked by phone to provide an informed consent form.

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Tarabeih, M., Perelmutter, O., Kitay-Cohen, Y. et al. Associations of the COVID-19 burden and various comorbidities of different ethnic groups in Israel: a cross-sectional study. Clin Exp Med 23, 4891–4899 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-023-01172-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-023-01172-4

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