Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost Due to COVID-19 in Brazil

André Peres Barbosa De Castro,Waldecy Rodrigues,Marina Figueiredo Moreira,David Nadler Prata,Paulo Henrique De Souza Bermejo

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147626

Abstract

In November 2020, Brazil ranked third in the number of cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and second in the number of deaths due to the disease. We carried out a descriptive study of deaths, mortality rate, years of potential life lost (YPLL) and excess mortality due to COVID-19, based on SARS-CoV-2 records in SIVEP-Gripe (Ministry of Health of Brazil) from 16 February 2020, to 1 January 2021. In this period, there were 98,025 deaths from COVID-19 in Brazil. Men accounted for 60.5% of the estimated 1.2 million YPLLs. High YPLL averages showed prematurity of deaths. The population aged 45–64 years (both sexes) represented more than 50% of all YPLLs. Risk factors were present in 69.5% of deaths, with heart disease, diabetes and obesity representing the most prevalent comorbidities in both sexes. Indigenous people had the lowest number of deaths and the highest average YPLL. However, in indigenous people, pregnant women and mothers had an average YPLL of over 35 years. The excess mortality for Brazil was estimated at 122,914 deaths (9.2%). The results show that the social impacts of YPLL due to COVID-19 are different depending on gender, race and risk factors. YPLL and excess mortality can be used to guide the prioritization of health interventions, such as prioritization of vaccination, lockdowns, or distribution of facial masks for the most vulnerable populations.

Highlights

In December 2019, cases of a new coronavirus were reported in Wuhan, China [1,2], called severe acute respiratory syndrome severe coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) [3]
Our findings indicated the presence of a risk factor in 73% of deaths, but these results can be explained by the fact that we only examined the number of deaths
In 2020, almost one year after the first case of COVID-19 in Brazil, more than one million years of potential life lost (YPLL) were reported, more than half of which were due to deaths in the economically active population

Summary

Introduction

In December 2019, cases of a new coronavirus were reported in Wuhan, China [1,2], called severe acute respiratory syndrome severe coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) [3]. On January 31, because of the spread of COVID-19, the WHO declared a global outbreak and, on March 11, recognized it as a pandemic [5,6]. The first case in Brazil was registered on 26 January 2020 and a public health emergency was declared on February 3. Community spread of COVID-19 was recognized in Brazil on March 20 [7,8]. In the 41st EW, Brazil was ranked third in cases reported (5,566,049) and second in the number of deaths (160,496) [9]

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Conclusion