Coronavirus: older non-white men with prior illness at much higher risk of Covid-19 death, British study finds

People from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are much more likely to have ‘bad outcomes’ from the disease but researchers say it’s not clear why

The Hong Kong government has tightened guidelines for aged care facilities following an outbreak at a home for the elderly

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A study of 17 million people in England has identified key risk factors associated with dying from Covid-19. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 11:00pm, 10 Jul 2020Updated: 4:31am, 11 Jul 2020

Older men with underlying health conditions and who come from an ethnic minority background, such as black or South Asian people, are exposed to a higher risk of dying from Covid-19, according to a study of 17 million people in England.

The largest study of its kind, according to its authors, analysed the primary care records of 17,278,392 adults, or 40 per cent of England’s population collected by the British National Health Service. Among them 10,926 died from coronavirus or related complications over the three months of tracking since February.

They found that the mortality was related to being male, older, subject to deprivation or economic hardship, and having diabetes, severe asthma and various other medical conditions, according to a peer-reviewed paper published in Nature on Wednesday.

“Compared with people with white ethnicity, black and South Asian people were at higher risk, even after adjustment for other factors,” 30 researchers, including Elizabeth Williamson and Alex Walker, wrote in the paper.

“Non-white ethnicity has previously been found to be associated with increased Covid-19 infection and poor outcomes.”

About 11 per cent of the patients tracked by the analysis identified as non-white.