Short-Term Lifestyle Alteration and All-Cause Mortality: Lessons from COVID-19 Prevention in a Low-Transmission Region

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 mortality is very low in the regions with a low transmission rate and sufficient medical resources. However, strict prevention measures greatly altered people’s social activities, diet, and hygienic habits, which had potential impact on non-COVID-19 deaths. Therefore, this study is to evaluate the impact of short-term lifestyle change on non-COVID deaths in the region with a low COVID-19 transmission rate.Methods: We performed a retropective observational study with statiscal analysis via Student’s t-test (significance defined as P-value Findings: Within the COVID-19 timeframe, all-cause mortality (138.03/105 vs. 158.28/105 vs. 152.57/105, P 5 vs. 24.48/105 vs. 21.22/105, P 5 vs. 38.69/105 vs. 38.61/105, P 5 vs. 42.06/105 vs. 39.55/105, P Interpretation: Our study suggests the short-term lifestyle alteration can have significant impact on all-cause mortality. This could provide evidences for adjusting future healthcare policies to reduce specific-cause mortalities such as respiratory, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.Trial Registration: This study was registered at the ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT 04550312). Funding: Xuzhou Talent Fellowship Program 2019.Conflict of Interest: We declare no competing interests.Ethical Approval: The medical research ethics committee of the affiliated hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, approved the study (9th, September 2020, No. XYFY2020-KL142-01).