How Much Has COVID-19 Actually Reduced Human Lifespan? [Reading Science]

Scientists Calculate 'Disability-Adjusted Life Years' Combining Lifespan Reduction and Disability Period
16 European Countries Recorded 4,354 Years per 100,000 People in Early Pandemic

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] How much damage has COVID-19, the worst pandemic of this century, inflicted on humanity? It is enormous, but there is no precise way to tally it. However, it is certain that it has had a tremendous negative impact on human health and lifespan. Scientists are calculating how much loss COVID-19 has caused to human health and lifespan using the concept of "Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)."

According to the international academic journal Nature on the 20th, a research team from the University of Torino in Italy recently calculated the Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to COVID-19 over about 10 months after the pandemic outbreak in 16 European countries. The results showed that the total healthy life years lost due to COVID-19 among the populations of these 16 countries amounted to 4,354 years per 100,000 people.

Disability-adjusted life years combine the years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature death from a specific disease and the years lived with disability (YLD) due to symptoms and sequelae. It is a concept that quantifies the impact of a disease on human health. It measures how much of the healthy lifespan has been lost due to the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) also uses it as an indicator to compare health levels between countries.

Among the 4,354 years of healthy life lost due to COVID-19 in the 16 European countries, 98% was due to years of life lost (YLLs) from premature death. By country, Italy, which was particularly severely affected by COVID-19, suffered the greatest damage with 650 years lost per 100,000 people, followed by the Czech Republic (534 years), Sweden (529 years), and the Netherlands (429 years). In contrast, Estonia (55 years) and Finland (59 years) experienced relatively less damage.

Research results on the loss of healthy life years due to COVID-19 in individual countries are also emerging. According to a study by Public Health Scotland, the Disability-adjusted life years due to COVID-19 in Scotland in 2020 were estimated to be between 96,500 and 108,200 years. Except for ischemic heart disease, COVID-19 had the greatest negative impact on the population's healthy lifespan among various diseases. In the Netherlands, a report released last November showed that the DALYs caused by COVID-19 were 16 times higher than those caused by influenza.

A bigger problem is that the negative impact of COVID-19 on human health may persist for a long time. This is due to long Covid, the sequelae that continue for a considerable period even after recovery from COVID-19. In the UK, for example, 19% of the total population was infected with COVID-19, and about one-third of them, or 6% of the total population, experienced one or more types of sequelae for at least 12 weeks. In the US, the number of people reported to have sequelae lasting at least three months after COVID-19 infection during 2020?2021 reached 4.6 million.

Meanwhile, in South Korea, a research team from Ulsan University and Korea University calculated the Disability-adjusted life years for 10,708 confirmed cases (240 deaths) from January 20 to April 24, 2020, during the early pandemic, and reported a result of approximately 4.930 years.