Lancet reported on a long-running study of the global burden of disease, including impacts on mortality. The article includes the analysis through the first couple of years of the epidemic. It is particularly helpful in understanding longer-term trends, by country, for cause of death, as it covers the period 1990 to 2021. The study in general is a great way to get a sense of how disease affects life expectancy and functionality around the world, and to identify trends. In many of the poorer sections of the world, enormous progress has been made against infectious disease and other health issues that constrain economic growth and improvements in quality of life. The study also demonstrates the still huge gap between health in richer countries and poorer ones. It is startling to see how so many of our fellow humans live. (Lancet Article)
In terms of causes of death, absent the epidemic, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lower respiratory infections (flu, pneumonia, etc.) have continually been the four leading causes of death over the entire study period. But the rate of mortality caused by each of these has declined, as treatments and public health have improved. Alzheimers and other dementias are a rapidly rising cause of death, linked to population aging. Life expectancy has generally risen around the world, although the epidemic knocked that back a few years.
