Migrant Health and COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study of Characteristics, Clinical Features, and Health Outcome from Iran

BACKGROUND: As the pandemic unfolds, major concerns remain with those in disadvantaged positions who may be disproportionately affected. This paper aimed to present the characteristics of COVID-19 immigrant patients and investigate whether they were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed using data on 589,146 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Iran. Descriptive analyses were used to summarize the study population’s characteristics. Chi-squared test and logistic regression model were applied. RESULTS: After accounting for possible confounding covariates, being an immigrant was significantly associated with increased risk of death due to COVID-19 (OR 1.64, CI 1.568–1.727). When compared to Iranian-born patients, the prevalence of low blood oxygen levels on admission was higher among immigrant patients (53.9% versus 47.7%, P value < 0.001). Moreover, greater proportions of immigrants who were diagnosed with COVID-19 were admitted to an ICU (17% versus 15.8%, P value < 0.001). Patients aged 65 and above were the largest age category in both populations. However, there was a significant difference between the age profiles of patients, with children under the age of eighteen presenting 16% of immigrant patients vs 6.6% of Iranian-born patients (P value < 0.001). In both groups, more men were affected by COVID-19 than women, yet the sex bias was more prominent for migrant patients (P value < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The evidence from this study revealed that immigrant patients infected with COVID-19 were more likely to suffer from severe health outcome of the disease compared to Iranian-born patients.