Despite fewer overall COVID-19 deaths, more younger people died in second year of the pandemic

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-2226

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

 

A brief research report found that despite 20.8 percent fewer COVID-19 deaths occurring in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 7.4 percent more years of life were lost due to a shift in COVID-19 mortality to relatively younger people. The report is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School conducted an analysis of premature mortality caused by the leading causes of death in the United States during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors quantified this shift in mortality age using years of life lost (YLL), which offers an indicator of premature mortality based on the estimated number of years a person would have lived if they had not died prematurely. They found that despite 20.8 percent fewer COVID-19 deaths during March to December 2021 than during March to December 2020, YLL due to COVID-19 increased by 7.4 percent as the age distribution of decedents shifted downward (i.e., relatively younger people were dying). The authors report that YLL per COVID-19 death increased by 35.7 percent but did not change by more than 2.2 percent for any other leading cause of death. According to the authors, understanding this shift in COVID-19 mortality dynamics could inform prevention and treatment approaches, public policy development, and community measures to minimize future effects of COVID-19.

 

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at [email protected]. To speak with corresponding author Mark É. Czeisler, PhD, please email Haley Bridger at [email protected].

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