The decrease in life expectancy is greatest among young people and among people aged 50 to 60 years.
India lost 2. 6 years of life expectancy between 2019 and 2020, more than high-income countries, according to a paper titled “Significant and Uneven Decline in Life Expectancy During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India in 2020” published in Science Advances on July 19. . .
It uses knowledge from the 2019-21 National Survey of Family Health (NFHS-5) and analyzes families in 14 states and union territories (UTs), representing a quarter of India’s population.
The NFHS survey was conducted in two stages, and the study uses Phase 2 data (households surveyed in 2021 specifically), says Aashish Gupta, one of the co-authors.
“The NFHS asks about deaths of family members since 2017, allowing us to estimate mortality in 2019 and 2020 for the same set of families. “
“Although absolute increases in mortality have been greater at older ages, increases in mortality at younger ages have contributed substantially to the loss of life expectancy, as life expectancy is more susceptible to mortality in the early stages of life. “
Increased mortality in the age groups 0 to 19 and 60 to 79 years for women contributed the most to the decline in life expectancy. For men, this is the 40-59 age group.
Muslims experienced a decline, from 68. 8 years in 2019 to 63. 4 years in 2020, a loss of 5. 4 years.
Scheduled tribes and scheduled castes followed with reductions of 4.1 years and 2.7 years, respectively.
For other backward categories (OBC) and “upper caste Hindus”, the decline was 1. 3 years each.
Among Muslims, the loss was greater for women, at age 6. 6, than for men, at age 4. 6. Similarly, among CSs, women lost 4. 6 years compared to 1. 1 years for men.
Within the ST, however, it is higher for men (5. 4 years) than for women (2. 7 years).
Among other backward categories and “high-caste Hindus,” the loss is greater for women over 1. 9 years of age each.
It is 0. 7 years and 0. 9 years for men of other backward categories and “high-caste Hindus”, respectively.
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