Covid pandemic caused biggest decrease in life expectancy since World War II: Oxford study


PTI, Sep 27, 2021, 12:28 PM IST

Source: unsplash

London:  The COVID-19 pandemic led to the biggest decrease in life expectancy since World War II, and wiped out years of progress on mortality, according to a study published on Monday by the University of Oxford.

The research team assembled an unprecedented dataset on mortality from 29 countries, spanning most of Europe, the US and Chile — countries for which official death registrations for 2020 had been published.

The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found that 27 of the 29 countries saw reductions in life expectancy in 2020, and at a scale which wiped out years of progress on mortality.

Women in 15 countries and men in 10 countries were found to have a lower expectancy at birth in 2020 than in 2015, a year in which life expectancy was already negatively affected by a significant flu season.

“For Western European countries such as Spain, England and Wales, Italy, Belgium, among others, the last time such large magnitudes of declines in life expectancy at birth were observed in a single year was during WW-II,” said study’s co-lead author Jose Manuel Aburto, from Oxford’s Leverhulme Center for Demographic Science (LCDS).

“However, the scale of the life expectancy losses was stark across most countries studied, with 22 countries included in the study experiencing larger losses than half a year in 2020,” Aburto said.

The researchers noted that females in eight countries and males in 11 countries experienced losses larger than a year.

It took on average 5.6 years for these countries to achieve a one-year increase in life expectancy recently, while the progress was wiped out over the course of 2020 by COVID-19, they said.

Life expectancy, also known as period life expectancy, refers to the average age to which a newborn lives if current death rates continued for their whole life. It does not predict an actual lifespan.

Across most of the 29 countries, males saw larger life expectancy declines than females, according to the researchers.

The largest declines in life expectancy were observed among males in the US, who saw a decline of 2.2 years relative to 2019 levels, followed by Lithuanian males (1.7 years), they said.

“The large declines in life expectancy observed in the US can partly be explained by the notable increase in mortality at working ages observed in 2020,” said study co-lead author, Ridhi Kashyap from LCDS.

“In the US, increases in mortality in the under 60 age group contributed most significantly to life expectancy declines, whereas across most of Europe increases in mortality above age 60 contributed more significantly,” Kashyap said.

The team’s analysis also shows that most life expectancy reductions across different countries were attributable to official COVID-19 deaths.

“While we know that there are several issues linked to the counting of COVID-19 deaths, such as inadequate testing or misclassification, the fact that our results highlight such a large impact that is directly attributable to COVID-19 shows how devastating a shock it has been for many countries,” Kashyap said.

“We urgently call for the publication and availability of more disaggregated data from a wider-range of countries, including low- and middle-income countries, to better understand the impacts of the pandemic globally,” she added.

Udayavani is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest news.

Top News

Maharashtra Polls: Eknath Shinde targets Uddhav for `giving up’ Bal Thackeray’s principles for power

Will appear before Lokayukta for questioning in MUDA case, says CM Siddaramaiah

Lies have short life, Cong’s ‘fake’ narrative smashed: Fadnavis

Temple idols found desecrated in Hyderabad, case registered

SC junks plea against quashing of LOC issued to ex-house help of Sushant Singh Rajput

JPC chairman Jagdambika Pal to visit K’taka on Nov 7 to meet farmers protesting Waqf notices

Indian boxer Mandeep Jangra wins WBF’s world title

Related Articles More

Weight loss could help one manage PCOS symptoms, study suggests

Risk of abnormal blood fat levels increased by about 30 pc during pandemic, finds study

Attention problems could be ‘middleman’ between genetic risk for, experiencing psychosis: Study

Meeting WHO’s sodium recommendations could avert deaths from heart, kidney disease: Study

Meeting WHO’s sodium recommendations could avert deaths from heart, kidney disease: Study

MUST WATCH

Gho Pooja in Deepavali Festival

Melukote Deepavali

Ganapathi Co-operative Society Ltd

Udayavani Chinnara Banna 2024

Annapoorna Aahar | Food Places In Mysore


Latest Additions

Davanagere: Man murdered by relative for insurance money; 4 arrested within 24 hours

Heroin worth Rs 3.5 crore recovered in police raid in Delhi, 2 arrested

Govt clerk found dead in Tahsildar’s chamber, FIR filed against minister’s PA, 2 others

Treated Muslims like fuel for ‘lantern’: Prashant Kishor targets Lalu, asks upper castes to stay away from Nitish

MP Brijesh Chowta urges Kerala CM for strict action against attack on Edneer Swamiji’s vehicle

Thanks for visiting Udayavani

You seem to have an Ad Blocker on.
To continue reading, please turn it off or whitelist Udayavani.