The average life expectancy for the US population in 2020 decreased by 1.8 years from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 years, the largest decline in more than 75 consecutive years.[/B]
The official death data collected in the US in 2020 (CDC and NCHS) are summarized by physicians from 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 Therapeutics-Epidemiology-Preventive Medicine) and Thanos Dimopoulos (Professor of Therapeutics-Immunology-Oncology and Dean of NCHS).
The analysis shows that 3,383,729 deaths were recorded in total,[/B] i.e. almost 529,000 more deaths compared to 2019. Specifically, 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 an increase in mortality due to COVID-19, with nearly 351,000 deaths overall attributed to coronavirus during that year. The causes of death that also contributed significantly to this decline are followed by unintentional injuries (which include fatal drug overdoses), heart disease, homicides and diabetes mellitus.
In the overall ranking, 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, while COVID-19 became the third leading cause of death. Interestingly, suicide dropped off the list of the top ten causes of death in 2020.
The remaining leading causes of death in 2020 after the top three were unintentional injuries, vascular strokes, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes mellitus, influenza, and kidney disease.
These ten leading causes account for 74% of all deaths in the US in 2020. It should be noted that in 2020 the effect of vaccinations against COVID-19 was not yet decisively visible, hopefully never again to see such mortality due to COVID-19. On the other hand, the increases in deaths attributed to causes other than COVID-19 suggest that the pandemic has negatively affected health in indirect ways as well.
Increases in other leading causes of death, such as heart disease and diabetes mellitus, may result from disruptions in health care that have hindered preventive care, early diagnosis or management of such diseases.
These data, although coming from the US, largely reflect the European reality and should be appropriately exploited by governmental and health care institutions for the benefit of society, say the professors of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: CNA
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