The COVID-19 pandemic has potentially led to an astonishing 20 million years of lives lost worldwide, according to estimates from a new study. On average, every person who died lost 16 years of life.
The researchers – from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany – analyzed the data from more than 1.2 million people in 81 countries who have so far studied COVID. 19 died. (The researchers use information from a database of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, known as COVerAge-DB, which includes data from 112 countries. The analysis included all countries with at least one COVID-19 death on January 6, 2021.) Then they calculated ‘life years lost’, or the difference between the age of someone at death and their life expectancy, using data on life expectancy in these countries.
Overall, more than 20.5 million life years have been lost due to COVID-19 in these countries alone.
“From the point of view of public health, lost life years are crucial because it assesses how many lives have been curtailed for populations affected by the disease,” the authors wrote in their paper published in the magazine on Thursday (February 18). . Scientific reports.
Related: US life expectancy drops dramatically due to COVID-19
Only a quarter of these lost life years came from people over 75. Nearly half of the life years were lost by people aged 55 to 75, and almost a third came from people under 55. Among countries where death count by gender was available, life expectancy was 44% higher in men than women, the authors said.
The study also found that life years lost due to COVID-19 two to nine times in countries with many COVID-19 cases, during a typical flu season.
The researchers note that their study has some important limitations. Since many countries are likely to underreport COVID-19 deaths, the researchers’ calculation of total life years may be an underestimation. On the other hand, people who die from COVID-19 may tend to have a shorter life expectancy than the average person, which can lead to an overestimation of the life years lost. The study also did not look at life years lost in all 195 countries around the world, meaning the global toll could be even higher.
Finally, the study examined only premature death and did not look at the possible health burden of the disease among survivors, or ‘lived years with disability’ as a result of the disease. More research is needed on the long-term health consequences of COVID-19 and how often it occurs, they said.
Originally published on Live Science.