London, Sept 27 (BUS): The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced life expectancy in 2020 by the most since World War II, according to a study published Monday by the University of Oxford, with the life expectancy of American men dropping by more than two years. .
Life expectancy has decreased by more than six months compared to 2019 in 22 of the 29 countries analyzed in the study, which included Europe, the United States and Chile. There has been a decline in life expectancy in 27 out of 29 countries overall.
Most of the reductions in life expectancy across countries could be linked to official COVID-19 deaths, the university said. A Reuters statistic showed that nearly 5 million deaths from the novel coronavirus have been reported so far.
“The fact that our findings highlight such a significant impact that is directly attributable to COVID-19 shows how devastating it is to many countries,” said Dr. Reddy Kashyap, co-lead author of the paper published in the International Journal. of epidemiology, Reuters reported.
There was a greater reduction in life expectancy for men than for women in most countries, with the largest reduction in American men, who experienced a 2.2 year reduction in life expectancy compared to 2019.
Overall, men have shaved for more than a year in 15 countries, compared to women in 11. This has wiped out the progress in mortality that has been made in the past 5.6 years.
In the United States, the rise in the death rate was mainly among those of working age and those under the age of 60, while in Europe, deaths among people over the age of 60 contributed most to the increase in the death rate.
Kashyap appealed to more countries, including low- and middle-income countries, to make mortality data available for further studies.
“We urgently call for more disaggregated data to be published and made available in order to better understand the impacts of the pandemic globally,” she said.
HF