Two experts from HMA, Dr Péter Gaál and Dr Tamás Joó, contributed as co-authors to an international study published in The Lancet in May 2024.
In addition to the comprehensive mortality and life expectancy assessments presented in the companion publications of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021, this analysis details specific causes of death and their impact on life expectancy. The study includes an extensive decomposition analysis, identifying the leading causes of death that most significantly affect life expectancy at the global, regional, and national levels. Furthermore, it provides insights into the causes of death and years of life lost (YLL) across individual countries and territories, offering valuable information to policymakers regarding variations in cause-specific mortality.
This is the first study to present global estimates of COVID-19-related deaths and years of life lost for 204 countries and territories in the context of the global burden of disease for the year 2021. While previous publications have estimated COVID-19-related deaths, these had not been systematically compared with other causes of death until now. The study integrates COVID-19 deaths into a hierarchical framework of mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive causes of death, providing essential information for policymakers in setting healthcare priorities worldwide.
To provide a more comprehensive view of life expectancy, the authors disaggregated age-specific mortality data by cause-specific mortality rates. They examined the impact of COVID-19 and other causes of death on life expectancy by breaking down the number of deaths according to various cause-specific mortality rates. The analysis considered data from countries, territories, regions, and super-regions, covering five time periods: 1990–2000, 2000–2010, 2010–2019, 2019–2021, and 1990–2021. This systematic approach enabled the calibration of the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to other causes of death over the 1990–2021 period.
The study also identified several causes of death that have become increasingly geographically concentrated over time, meaning they have had a disproportionately greater impact in specific geographic regions compared to global trends. This analysis provides critical insights for policymakers into regional disparities and inequalities in cause-specific mortality.
The full English-language study is available at the following link: The Lancet – Full Text