Impact of COVID-19 on excess mortality, life expectancy, and years of life lost in the United States

PLoS One. 2021 Sep 1;16(9):e0256835. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256835. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

This paper quantifies the net impact (direct and indirect effects) of the pandemic on the United States population in 2020 using three metrics: excess deaths, life expectancy, and total years of life lost. The findings indicate there were 375,235 excess deaths, with 83% attributable to direct, and 17% attributable to indirect effects of COVID-19. The decrease in life expectancy was 1.67 years, translating to a reversion of 14 years in historical life expectancy gains. Total years of life lost in 2020 was 7,362,555 across the USA (73% directly attributable, 27% indirectly attributable to COVID-19), with considerable heterogeneity at the individual state level.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • COVID-19 / mortality*
  • Cause of Death*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Life Expectancy*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Pandemics*
  • SARS-CoV-2*
  • United States / epidemiology

Grants and funding

Funding Source: Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Medicine, Western University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.