Covid-19 reduces life expectancy, says study published in The Lancet

Life expectancy at birth decreased by 1.6 years worldwide in the period between 2019 and 2021, breaking a historical trend of continuous increase. The data confirms the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on human health around the globe. In Brazil, the drop was even greater, 2.8 years. The analysis is part of an article published in the British magazine The Lancet and was obtained from work carried out by an international study group called Global Burden of Diseases, which includes a researcher from Fiocruz Pernambuco.

The researchers pored over data from 204 countries, in addition to 811 regions, states and cities. Globally, life expectancy was 73.3 years in 2019. In 2021, it decreased to 71.7. In Brazil, life expectancy at birth was 76.5 years in 2019, remaining at 73.7 years in 2021. The national reduction was 75% greater when compared to the global number.

Among the 204 countries surveyed, only 32 (15.7%) had an increase in life expectancy. “It is important to understand the characteristics of the regions that, even with Covid-19, maintained the trend of increasing life expectancy. Among those that showed a reduction, it is necessary to understand what caused the drop to be smaller or larger. It is by understanding these profiles and capturing the distinctions that we can think of in actions to combat future pandemics”, says the researcher from the Public Health department, at Fiocruz Pernambuco, Rafael Moreira, who is part of the team of scientists responsible for the study. He also reiterates that the research is “ scientific evidence that Covid-19 was a serious public health event”.

The study also analyzed the numbers for each Brazilian state. In Pernambuco, for example, life expectancy in 2019 was 75.7 years and fell to 74 years in 2021, a negative difference of 1.7 years. This means a percentage rate just 6% higher than the global one.

“From this article published in The Lancet, it became clear that global events in public health affect the life expectancy of a population and, depending on the socioeconomic level and coping model of each region, the problem can be even greater in saving lives. . Several factors are involved in these distinctions, but the pandemic and its management were the factors that changed the course of progress in increasing life expectancy at birth”, points out Rafael Moreira.

General mortality – It is estimated that 131 million people died worldwide between 2020 and 2021. Of this total, 15.9 million deaths (12%) were caused directly by SARS-CoV-2 infection and indirectly due to to other social, economic or behavioral changes associated with the pandemic.

Child mortality – Despite the global decrease in life expectancy, researchers attested that infant mortality continued to fall even during the pandemic period. In 2019, 5.21 million deaths were recorded among boys and girls under 5 years of age. In 2021, there were 4.66 million deaths. In other words, there were around 550 thousand fewer deaths.

The full article can be read at the following link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)00476-8/fulltext