Spain recovers half of the life expectancy lost by Covid in the last year

• Health The coronavirus pandemic reduced life expectancy by the most since World War II

• Data Life expectancy in Spain in 2017 stood at 83 years, the highest in the EU and the third in the world

The arrival of Covid brought with it an unprecedented increase in mortality rates in practically the entire world.

Very few countries managed to maintain their life expectancy levels, especially during the first waves of infections.

Almost three years after that irruption, the traces of the pandemic are still evident.

In many countries, life expectancy continues to fall, while in others, such as Spain, although the trend has reversed, the numbers still do not reach those of the pre-pandemic years.

This is demonstrated by new research published in

, which has analyzed data from 29 countries between 2015 and 2021.

"Life expectancy is an indicator of the mortality of a country, as if it were a photograph of the mortality situation in a year. It reflects the average number of years that a newborn would live if during her life the mortality levels of that year. That is, it is not a projection or prediction of how long an individual will live. The advantage of this indicator is that it is comparable between countries and over time, which makes it very useful because the countries are of different sizes and the structure of the age of the population also varies", explains

, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and one of the main signatories of the work.

Beyond the general increase in mortality recorded in 2020, the analysis showed divergent trends in the months after that first impact and, above all, in 2021. Thus, while some countries, such as the US, Chile or most countries in the Eastern Europe continued to experience falls in their life expectancy figures, others have managed to recover.

life expectancy difference

is striking ,

which in 2021 were already at levels of life expectancy comparable to those of the years prior to the pandemic (Denmark, Finland and Norway were among the few that maintained their levels of life expectancy even in 2020).

The case of Spain

Other Western European countries, including Spain, have managed to reverse the downward trend that marked 2020, but they still do not have figures similar to those recorded in 2019.

"Spain was substantially affected during the pandemic. This was reflected in a drop in life expectancy of 15 months in 2020," explains Aburto.

"For 2021, the impact of the pandemic was less, but still substantial and that is why it is still below 2019 levels,

," he adds.

The work estimates that the recovery in life expectancy between 2020 and 2021 is 7.6 months, which places the trend still far from what was seen until 2019.

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which still does not have data for 2021, in 2020 the life expectancy of Spanish men stood at 79.6 years, while for women it was 85.1 years.

The impact of the pandemic led to life expectancy breaking the upward trend of the last decade and falling to 2012 levels, when life expectancy for men was 79.4 years and for women 85.1 years.

Evolution of life expectancy in Spain

In countries like the US, where the pandemic has exacerbated an upward trend in mortality, life expectancy in 2021 was still 28.2 months lower than in 2019;

a difference that reached 43 months in Bulgaria and 33 in Slovakia.

The importance of vaccination

Although there are many variables that can explain this divergence in trends, the authors point out in the scientific journal that one of the influential factors was the level of vaccination of the population.

"In 2021,

for the countries that experienced lower losses or even a recovery in life expectancy," says Aburto.

"Health systems, and in general public health interventions such as lockdowns, also had a strong impact in mitigating the impacts of the pandemic on life expectancy," adds the researcher, who cites the example of the Nordic countries , one of the few exceptions to the rule, "where life expectancy was not substantially affected and also where health systems are strong."

Recovering pre-pandemic life expectancy levels

can be a complicated task, especially in countries that continue to maintain a downward trend, researchers point out in the medical journal, who recall that the impact of the pandemic on mortality is unprecedented. in the last 70 years.

Not only because of the direct influence of infections, but because of their effect on other causes of death.

"For example, there is evidence to suggest that cancer or cardiovascular disease treatments were not given on time during the pandemic due to the saturation of the health system or fear of infection in hospitals. On the other hand, the pandemic has affected the population unevenly. with worse results among disadvantaged subpopulations," says Aburto.

"This suggests, along with

, that returning to pre-2019 growth patterns may take longer than expected in the next few years," he concludes.

"The study belongs to a solid group that has been working on this issue for years and has been very active during the pandemic. Its conclusions fit very well with the existing evidence, showing the effect that slow or inefficient vaccination can have. in deaths and, therefore, in loss of life expectancy", said

director of the Institute of Economy, Geography and Demography of the CSIC in statements to

Spain.

"It is interesting what they emphasize on two points. On the one hand, the effect of Covid-19 on the countries of Eastern Europe. On the other, the possible interruption of the process of rapprochement between life expectancies in Eastern and Western Europe in recent years, after a period of stagnant life expectancy growth in Eastern countries during the 1980s and 1990s.

"The persistent losses in life expectancy from covid-19 in eastern Europe and the recovery in life expectancy in the west is not known to create a new divide in terms of mortality and life expectancy patterns between this and west," he stresses.

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