Contrasting pre-vaccine COVID-19 waves in Italy through Functional Data Analysis

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Boschi, Tobia, Di Iorio, Jacopo, Testa, Lorenzo, Cremona, Marzia A., Chiaromonte, Francesca
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866915709072703488
author Boschi, Tobia
Di Iorio, Jacopo
Testa, Lorenzo
Cremona, Marzia A.
Chiaromonte, Francesca
author_facet Boschi, Tobia
Di Iorio, Jacopo
Testa, Lorenzo
Cremona, Marzia A.
Chiaromonte, Francesca
contents We use data from 107 Italian provinces to characterize and compare mortality patterns in the first two COVID-19 epidemic waves, which occurred prior to the introduction of vaccines. We also associate these patterns with mobility, timing of government restrictions, and socio-demographic, infrastructural, and environmental covariates. Notwithstanding limitations in the accuracy and reliability of publicly available data, we are able to exploit information in curves and shapes through Functional Data Analysis techniques. Specifically, we document differences in magnitude and variability between the two waves; while both were characterized by a co-occurrence of 'exponential' and 'mild' mortality patterns, the second spread much more broadly and asynchronously through the country. Moreover, we find evidence of a significant positive association between local mobility and mortality in both epidemic waves and corroborate the effectiveness of timely restrictions in curbing mortality. The techniques we describe could capture additional signals of interest if applied, for instance, to data on cases and positivity rates. However, we show that the quality of such data, at least in the case of Italian provinces, was too poor to support meaningful analyses.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2307_09820
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Contrasting pre-vaccine COVID-19 waves in Italy through Functional Data Analysis
Boschi, Tobia
Di Iorio, Jacopo
Testa, Lorenzo
Cremona, Marzia A.
Chiaromonte, Francesca
Applications
Physics and Society
We use data from 107 Italian provinces to characterize and compare mortality patterns in the first two COVID-19 epidemic waves, which occurred prior to the introduction of vaccines. We also associate these patterns with mobility, timing of government restrictions, and socio-demographic, infrastructural, and environmental covariates. Notwithstanding limitations in the accuracy and reliability of publicly available data, we are able to exploit information in curves and shapes through Functional Data Analysis techniques. Specifically, we document differences in magnitude and variability between the two waves; while both were characterized by a co-occurrence of 'exponential' and 'mild' mortality patterns, the second spread much more broadly and asynchronously through the country. Moreover, we find evidence of a significant positive association between local mobility and mortality in both epidemic waves and corroborate the effectiveness of timely restrictions in curbing mortality. The techniques we describe could capture additional signals of interest if applied, for instance, to data on cases and positivity rates. However, we show that the quality of such data, at least in the case of Italian provinces, was too poor to support meaningful analyses.
title Contrasting pre-vaccine COVID-19 waves in Italy through Functional Data Analysis
topic Applications
Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.09820