The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare rejected the findings of a recent study published in the educational journal Science Advances, which found that life expectancy in India declined particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The ministry considers the study to be “unsustainable and unacceptable”.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, suggests that India lost 2. 6 years of life expectancy between 2019 and 2020. The study indicated that socially disadvantaged groups, such as Muslims and tribals listed, suffered the greatest losses, with women experiencing the greatest decline. . (3. 1 years) to men (2. 1 years).
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Pointing out several methodological flaws in the study, the Ministry of Health said the authors used an unrepresentative subset of families from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), conducted between January and April 2021, to extrapolate mortality rates for the entire country. country. . The branch argued that the NFHS pattern is representative only when thought about as a whole, and that research of only 23% of families in 14 states cannot reflect, as it should, national mortality trends.
The ministry also criticized the study for alleged diversity of perspectives and biases in reporting, such as data collected at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. He says the Civil Registry (CRS) formula in India is robust, recording more than 99 percent of deaths.
“This report has increased, going from 75% in 2015 to more than 99% in 2020,” he says.
The government noted that death records rose to around 474,000 between 2020 and 2019, a trend consistent with previous years and not just attributable to the pandemic.
“The excess number is also due to a growing trend in the registration of deaths in the CRS (92% in 2019) and a larger population the following year,” the ministry added.
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He noted that the Sample Registration System (SRS), which covers a huge and varied population across the country, reported little or no excess mortality between 2020 and 2019.
The government also questioned the study’s findings on increased age- and sex-related mortality. According to official data, mortality from Covid-19 is higher in men and older age groups, contrary to the study’s claim that younger Americans and women experienced higher excess mortality.
“These inconsistent and unexplained effects in the published paper increase confidence in their claims,” he said.