The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the global population, with a new study revealing the loss of disability-free years of life from 2020 through 2022. According to research published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine, more than 16 million years of life were lost among 289 million adults in 18 European countries. The study, conducted by Sara Ahmadi-Abhari and colleagues from Imperial College London, UK, sheds light on the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic on total and disability-free years of life lost.
By integrating data from multiple sources on the European population aged 35 and older, the researchers were able to track rates of diseases, disabilities, and death to estimate the impact of the pandemic. The study found that 16.8 million years of life were lost due to the pandemic in 2020-2022, with countries like the UK, Germany, Spain, Poland, Italy, and France experiencing significant losses.
Interestingly, more than half of the total years of life lost would have been lived without disability if the pandemic had been avoided. The study also revealed that 3.6–5.3 million years of life were lost due to non-COVID causes of death, highlighting the indirect impact of the pandemic on mortality. While the years of life lost due to COVID-19 deaths decreased after 2021 with the rollout of vaccinations, non-COVID deaths continued to increase in most countries.
The researchers emphasized that the pandemic has widened socioeconomic inequalities in premature mortality between countries and has exacerbated sex differences in life expectancy. Dr. Sara Ahmadi-Abhari, the lead author of the study, emphasized the need for a comprehensive pandemic preparedness program to address both immediate and long-term public health impacts.
In conclusion, the study underscores the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic beyond direct mortality. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the broader impact of the pandemic on public health and the critical need for preparedness measures to mitigate future crises. For more information on the study, you can access the full article in PLOS Medicine.
