COVID deaths bring down life expectancy

NEW DELHI: Global life expectancy dropped by 1.6 years between 2019 and 2021, a sharp reversal from past improvements, according to a research published in The Lancet journal.

One of the first to fully evaluate demographic trends in the context of the first two years of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the study has published findings, which researchers said could have implications for health systems, economies and societies around the world.

Roughly 131 million people died globally from all causes in 2020 and 2021 combined, of which the pandemic caused about 16 million, either directly by infecting or indirectly by bringing about social, economic or behavioural changes, they estimated.

The study found that life expectancy declined in 84 per cent of countries and territories during this time, which demonstrated the “devastating potential impacts of novel pathogens”, the researchers said.

The research, coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington (UW), US, presented updated estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021, also found a marked increase in adult mortality rates globally during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, reversing past decreasing trends. The estimates will enable key stakeholders to better understand and address the profound changes that have occurred in the global health landscape following the first two years of the pandemic and longer-term trends in the future, they said.

Measuring mortality, excess mortality from the pandemic, life expectancy and population, the researchers estimated that global death rate jumped among people aged over 15 years -- by 22 per cent in men and 17 per cent in women -- from 2019 to 2021.

The pandemic did not, however, completely erase historic progress made in enhancing life expectancy at birth, which rose by nearly 23 years between 1950 and 2021.