COVID Cut Average Lifespan Nearly A Decade In Parts Of US | Jessica Wolf

Credit: Oliver Chien/UCLA International Institute

Aug. 7, 2021 (MedicalXpress) -- At its peak, COVID-19 drastically reduced the average human lifespan -- by as much as nine years in one U.S. state -- according to a new longevity metric developed at UCLA.

Sociology professor Patrick Heuveline devised the metric, called the mean unfulfilled lifespan, to assess the impact of temporary "shocks" like the novel coronavirus on average length of life. To date, the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 4.2 million people worldwide.

The tool allows demographers to conduct fine-grained analyses in specific regions over various periods of time, offering a new and more dynamic way of gauging how different areas of the country and the world experience decreases in lifespans over the course of the pandemic, Heuveline said.

Heuveline's analysis, published online in the open-access journal PLOS One, suggests, for example, that as COVID-19 peaked in New Jersey in mid-April 2020, the average lifespan in the state plummeted by almost nine years, the most dramatic example from the United States.

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