The Doctors of the Therapeutic Clinic of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Lina Paschou (Assistant Professor of Endocrinology), Theodora Psaltopoulou (Professor of Therapeutic-Epidemiology-Preventive Medicine) and Thanos Aigatopis-Ka. official death data collected in the US in 2020 (CDC and NCHS).
The analysis shows that a total of 3,383,729 deaths were recorded, ie almost 529,000 more deaths compared to 2019. This means that the average life expectancy for the US population in 2020 was 77 years, down 1.8 years from 2019. (78.8 years). In fact, this is the biggest drop in more than 75 consecutive years.
More specifically, the average life expectancy for men decreased by 2.1 years in 2020, from 76.3 years in 2019 to 74.2 years in 2020. For women, the average decrease was 1.5 years, from 81, 4 years in 2019 to 79 years in 2020.
The decrease in life expectancy is largely due to the increase in mortality due to COVID-19, as almost 351,000 deaths are attributed to the coronavirus during this year. The causes of death that also contributed significantly to this reduction are involuntary injuries (including fatal drug overdoses), heart disease, homicide and diabetes.
Overall, heart disease (168.2 deaths per 100,000 population) and cancer (144.1 deaths per 100,000 population) remained the top two causes of death, with COVID-19 becoming the third leading cause of death. Interestingly, suicides dropped from the list of the top ten causes of death in 2020. The other major causes of death in 2020 after the first three were involuntary injuries, strokes, chronic lower respiratory illness, Alzheimer’s disease diabetes, the flu, and kidney disease. These ten top causes account for 74% of all deaths in the US by 2020.
It should be noted that by 2020 the effect of COVID-19 vaccinations was not yet conclusively visible, hoping that such mortality due to COVID-19 would never be observed again. On the other hand, increases in deaths attributable to causes other than COVID-19 suggest that the pandemic has also adversely affected health in indirect ways. Increases in other major causes of death, such as heart disease and diabetes, may result from health care disorders that have prevented preventive care, early diagnosis, or management of such diseases. Although these data come from the US, they also largely reflect the European reality and should be used appropriately by government and health agencies for the good of society.
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