Lombardia, the most populated and industrialized Italian region, was the epicentre of the first wave (March and April 2020) of COVID-19 in Italy and it results in a significant increase in dementia deaths during these months.
The number of Covid-19 cases in the South Italy was lower than in the North Italy during the first wave.Calabria, as well as others regions the southern Italy, shows a dementia mortality trend similar to the past years.
Residential or social assistance structure are unfortunately known to be environments at high risk of developing outbreaks of Covid, this due to a combination of factors.
On the one hand, in fact, there is the vulnerability of residents who often suffer from heart disease, respiratory disease and diabetes.
On the other hand, the environment itself should not be underestimated, characterized by shared common spaces, or closed places where contacts with staff and visitors are frequent.
This results an increase of Covid-19 cases in these structure and, as a correlation, in a increase of dementia deaths.
The elderly population suffered the most during the pandemic. The percentage of deaths compared to the cases of positivity officially registered, saw Italy among the most affected countries in Europe.
The main victims of Covid-19 are definitely the elderly.
A large number of Covid-19 cases in these age groups have been recorded, resulting in increased deaths of dementia due to pandemic.
In particular, the increase can be seen for people aged over 90.
Excess dementia mortality is the best indicator to evaluate the overall impact of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic in terms of lives lost. It quantifies not only the deaths directly related to Covid-19 but also those occurring as a consequence of the reduced capacity of the health system to provide care for other medical conditions.
March and April are the months of the first Covid-19 wave and the graph shows an excess of dementia mortality rate in Italy equal to 1155 for these two months.