COVID drives down U.S. life expectancy for the second straight year – CDC data
By Amruta Khandekar and Raghav Mahobe
(Reuters) – Life expectancy fell in america in 2021 for the second yr in a row to its lowest degree since 1996, pushed by COVID-19 deaths, in response to provisional authorities knowledge printed on Wednesday.
The practically one-year decline from 2020 to 76.1 years marked the biggest two-year drop in life expectancy at start in near a century, the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) discovered.
Disparity in life expectancy between women and men additionally widened final yr to the best in over twenty years, with males now anticipated to dwell 73.2 years, practically six fewer years than ladies.
Deaths from COVID-19 contributed to half of the general decline in life expectancy final yr, with drug overdoses and coronary heart illness additionally main contributors, the info confirmed.
COVID-19 was related to greater than 460,000 U.S. deaths in 2021, in response to the CDC.
In 2020, U.S. life expectancy noticed its greatest one-year drop since World Warfare Two, with COVID-related deaths contributing practically 75% to the decline.
“Mortality’s been a bit of higher in 2022 than it was in 2020, so I feel it is seemingly that we might see perhaps a slight improve in life expectancy,” stated Robert Anderson, chief of mortality statistics at CDC’s Nationwide Middle for Well being Statistics.
Nonetheless, life expectancy this yr will seemingly not return to pre-pandemic ranges, and loads rides on what occurs towards the top of the yr as deaths sometimes rise throughout winter months, Anderson stated.
Whereas deaths from suicide had decreased in 2020, they have been the fifth greatest contributor to the drop in general life expectancy final yr. Suicide-related deaths have been the third main contributor of the decline in life expectancy for males.
The information represents early estimates and has a number of limitations, the company famous, together with the distinction within the time taken by numerous jurisdictions in submitting demise certificates.
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Raghav Mahobe in Bengaluru; Modifying by Invoice Berkrot)
