The use of the time-to-event index (Tevent) to compare the negative impact of COVID-19 on public health among continents/regions in 2020 and 2021: An observational study

During the COVID-19 pandemic, how to measure the negative impact caused by COVID-19 on public health (ImpactCOV) is an important issue. However, few studies have applied the bibliometric index, taking both infected days (quantity) and impact (damage) into account for evaluating ImpactCOV thus far. This study aims to verify the proposed the time-to-event index (Tevent) that is viable and applicable in comparison with 11 other indicators, apply the Tevent to compare the ImpactCOVs among groups in continents/countries in 2020 and 2021, and develop an online algorithm to compute the Tevent-index and draw the survival analysis. METHODS: We downloaded COVID-19 outbreak data of daily confirmed cases (DCCs) for all countries/regions. The Tevent-index was computed for each country and region. The impactCOVs among continents/countries were compared using the Tevemt indices for groups in 2020 and 2021. Three visualizations (i.e., choropleth maps, forest plot, and time-to-event, a.k.a. survival analysis) were performed. Online algorithms of Tevent as a composite score to denote the ImpactCOV and comparisons of Tevents for groups on Google Maps were programmed. RESULTS: We observed that the top 3 countries affected by COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 were (India, Brazil, Russia) and (Brazil, India, and the UK), respectively; statistically significant differences in ImpactCOV were found among continents; and an online time-event analysis showed Hubei Province (China) with a Tevent of 100.88 and 6.93, respectively, in 2020 and 2021. CONCLUSION: The Tevent-index is viable and applicable to evaluate ImpactCOV. The time-to-event analysis as a branch of statistics for analyzing the expected duration of time until 1 event occurs is recommended to compare the difference in Tevent between groups in future research, not merely limited to ImpactCOV.