{"title":"Years of Life Lost to COVID-19 and Related Mortality Indicators: An Illustration in 30 Countries","authors":"Valentin Rousson, Isabella Locatelli","doi":"10.1002/bimj.202300386","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The concept of (potential) years of life lost is a measure of premature mortality that can be used to compare the impacts of different specific causes of death. However, interpreting a given number of years of life lost at face value is more problematic because of the lack of a sensible reference value. In this paper, we propose three denominators to divide an excess years of life lost, thus obtaining three indicators, called <i>average life lost</i>, <i>increase of life lost</i>, and <i>proportion of life lost</i>, which should facilitate interpretation and comparisons. We study the links between these three indicators and classical mortality indicators, such as life expectancy and standardized mortality rate, introduce the concept of <i>weighted standardized mortality rate</i>, and calculate them in 30 countries to assess the impact of COVID-19 on mortality in the year 2020. Using any of the three indicators, a significant excess loss is found for both genders in 18 of the 30 countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":55360,"journal":{"name":"Biometrical Journal","volume":"66 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bimj.202300386","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biometrical Journal","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bimj.202300386","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"MATHEMATICAL & COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The concept of (potential) years of life lost is a measure of premature mortality that can be used to compare the impacts of different specific causes of death. However, interpreting a given number of years of life lost at face value is more problematic because of the lack of a sensible reference value. In this paper, we propose three denominators to divide an excess years of life lost, thus obtaining three indicators, called average life lost, increase of life lost, and proportion of life lost, which should facilitate interpretation and comparisons. We study the links between these three indicators and classical mortality indicators, such as life expectancy and standardized mortality rate, introduce the concept of weighted standardized mortality rate, and calculate them in 30 countries to assess the impact of COVID-19 on mortality in the year 2020. Using any of the three indicators, a significant excess loss is found for both genders in 18 of the 30 countries.
期刊介绍:
Biometrical Journal publishes papers on statistical methods and their applications in life sciences including medicine, environmental sciences and agriculture. Methodological developments should be motivated by an interesting and relevant problem from these areas. Ideally the manuscript should include a description of the problem and a section detailing the application of the new methodology to the problem. Case studies, review articles and letters to the editors are also welcome. Papers containing only extensive mathematical theory are not suitable for publication in Biometrical Journal.