The average life expectancy of people worldwide fell by 1. 6 years in the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new Lancet study of censuses and other data showed this week, with the United States experiencing the highest excess mortality rate in 2020 and 2021 compared to rich countries.
According to the study, death rates had declined in the 70 years before Covid-19 infections began to spread, but a pandemic-driven reversal caused global mortality to rise from 2019 to 2021, expanding to as much as 22% among men aged 15 and 17. % among men over 15 years of age. wives.
Between 1950 and 2021, life expectancy at birth worldwide increased by 22. 7 years (from 49 to 71. 7 years), but this figure had an impact on a 1. 6-year decline globally between 2019 and 2021, a radical reversal of old trends.
Of the 204 countries and territories studied through The Lancet, 32 (or 15. 7%) saw their life expectancy increase between 2019 and 2021.
In the U. S. , 1. 59 more people per 1,000 died in 2020 and 2021 than would have been expected without the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the study, which is higher than the higher death rate of 1. 04 seen globally.
Among the 37 countries also classified as “high-income” according to the Lancet study, the United States has the highest excess mortality rate, followed by Italy with 1. 38 excess deaths, Monaco with 1. 33 and Portugal with 1. 05.
By region, Southeast Asia (which includes China, Thailand, and North Korea) had the lowest accumulation of excess mortality, at 0. 24 per 1,000, and Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, the highest, at 2. 7.
12,3%. This is the percentage of the 131 million international deaths in 2020 and 2021 that can be attributed to Covid-19, according to The Lancet, either from direct infection or from social, economic or behavioral changes related to the pandemic.
“For adults around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a more profound effect than any other event observed in the latter part of a century, adding conflict and natural disasters,” study author Austin Schumacher said in a statement. declined in 84% of countries and territories during this pandemic, demonstrating the potentially devastating effects of new pathogens. “
While overall mortality has increased, child deaths worldwide have declined in 2020 and 2021. A total of 5. 21 million people under the age of five died in 2019, up from 4. 66 deaths in 2021. Death rates among young children declined to 7, consistent with the penny from 2019 to 2021.
In addition to reading the effect of the first Covid pandemic, the Lancet researchers found that the expansion of the world’s population has been declining since 2017 and has continued to decline more rapidly during the pandemic. In addition, the world’s population is aging. According to the study, the number of seniors aged 65 and over grew faster than the number of people under 15 in 188 countries and territories surveyed between 2000 and 2021.
How demographic adjustments will affect overall fitness. Older populations and an increasing number of citizens in poorer countries with poorer fitness outcomes “will lead to unprecedented social, economic and political challenges,” Schumacher warned, adding hard work and scarcity of resources.