The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health has been profound, with a new study shedding light on the significant loss of disability-free years of life in European countries. According to research published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Sara Ahmadi-Abhari and colleagues from Imperial College London, over 16 million years of life were lost between 2020 and 2022 among 289 million adults in 18 European countries.
The study aimed to quantify the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic on total and disability-free years of life lost, providing valuable insights for policy-making and resource allocation. By integrating data on the European population aged 35 and older from various sources into a computational model, researchers were able to track rates of diseases, disability, and death to estimate the pandemic’s effect.
The findings revealed that 16.8 million years of life were lost due to the pandemic during the study period, with countries like the UK, Germany, Spain, Poland, Italy, and France experiencing significant losses. More than half of these lost years would have been lived independently without disability if the pandemic had been avoided, underscoring the far-reaching impact on public health.
Interestingly, a substantial proportion of the years of life lost were due to non-COVID causes of death, highlighting the pandemic’s indirect impact on mortality. While the years of life lost due to COVID-19 deaths decreased after 2021 with the rollout of vaccinations, losses from other causes continued to rise in most countries.
The study also revealed disparities in the loss of disability-free life between countries, with lower-income countries experiencing greater per capita losses. The authors emphasized that the pandemic exacerbated socioeconomic inequalities in premature mortality and widened sex differences in life expectancy.
Lead author Dr. Sara Ahmadi-Abhari emphasized the need for a comprehensive pandemic preparedness program to mitigate both immediate and long-term public health consequences. The study underscores the importance of understanding the broader impact of the pandemic beyond COVID-19 deaths, particularly on older populations.
In conclusion, the study provides valuable insights into the long-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health and underscores the need for proactive measures to address the broader consequences of future health crises. The findings highlight the importance of prioritizing public health preparedness and resource allocation to mitigate the impact of pandemics on society.
