Overall global life expectancy increased as world addressed major killers, though Covid pandemic had impact

Covid cut life expectancy by 1.6 years globally, but the leading causes of death haven’t changed since 1990 The top causes of death globally — heart disease, stroke, COPD, and lower respiratory infections — were unchanged since 1990 except for two years of Covid pandemic. Annalisa Merelli STAT

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The study, published Thursday in The Lancet, is the most comprehensive effort to quantify health gains and losses around the world. It found that the years 2020 and 2021 undid a lot of earlier success in increasing life expectancy, which had risen by 6.2 years between 1990 and 2019,  only to fall by 1.6 years globally during the pandemic (with another 0.6 years attributed to pandemic-related causes). And while the progress continued in some pockets (for instance, in East Sub-Saharan Africa) even during the pandemic, the report also points to persisting inequities. 

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