In a recent study, the average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by more than a year in 2020, with the country’s mortality rate due to COVID-19 toward researchers’ highest projections of the death toll.
Findings were published Thursday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal by researchers from Princeton and the University of Southern California. The study presented four projections based on total estimates for deaths in the U.S. coronavirus up to December 31, from the Institute for Health Statistics and Evaluation.
‘The US decline in life expectancy in 2020 is expected to exceed that of most other high-income countries, indicating that the United States – which already had a life expectancy before the pandemic among all other developed countries with a high income – will see his life expectancy fall even further behind his peers, ‘researchers wrote in the study.
CORONAVIRUS IN THE US: STATE-BY-STATE DISTRIBUTION
In retrospect, the US almost met the higher death rate, which the authors numbered 348,000 deaths by the end of last year. According to Johns Hopkins University data, as of December 31, there were approximately 345,900 deaths due to the new virus. Deaths have risen to at least 388,692 since Friday morning, while the country reported 3,928 additional deaths in the last day.
If the pandemic did not occur, study authors note that a person born in 2020 would live an average of about 79 years, although researchers shaved the grim death toll of the virus nearly 1.22 years from the average life expectancy. .
The population of black and Latino Americans is expected to have significantly greater declines in life expectancy compared to white populations, with the researchers enduring ‘structural inequalities’ that increase the risk of death and exposure to COVID-19. In fact, the decline in life expectancy among these minorities is expected to triple than that for White populations: “Under the higher mortality scenario, life expectancy is expected to be 0.73 [years] lower for the White population, 2.26 [years] lower for the black population, and 3.28 [years] lower for the Latino population. ‘
These differences are consistent with figures released by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), which reports increased rates of hospitalizations, cases and deaths for black and Latino populations, compared to white populations, by almost three times mortality rates, and hospitalization rates among Latino and Black populations that are 4.1, 3.7 times higher than those of white populations, respectively.
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Researchers said the higher toll could be linked to lower-paying jobs, job losses and health insurance problems, but also exposure to high risks among essential workers, tight housing and dependence on public transport.
“The greater toll for the Black and Latino population is due to both the higher COVID-19 mortality rates and a greater susceptibility to COVID-19 at younger ages among these groups compared to whites,” the authors said. of the study written.
It is noteworthy that the team examined the gaps in life expectancy between racial groups and found that the “black-and-white life expectancy gap” widened by about 39%, from 3.6 to more than five years, which according to researchers the progress made over the past 15 year made, push back. years.