Association Between Mental Health Disorders and Mortality Among Patients With COVID-19 in 7 Countries

Abstract

More than 100 million people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, and almost 2.5 million have died of COVID-19 worldwide.¹ These numbers probably underestimate COVID-19 deaths by 50% owing to misclassified dementia and cardiovascular or metabolic deaths.² Patients with mental health disorders may be at particular risk of poor COVID-19 outcomes. Patients with mental health disorders can have multiple comorbidities that have been identified as risk factors for severe COVID-19: diabetes, hypertension, chronic obstructive respiratory disease, and end-stage kidney disease.³ Mental health disorders are also associated with socioeconomic deprivation⁴ and reduced access to care,⁵ 2 important factors of poor COVID-19 outcomes.⁶