1. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on total, sex- and age-specific all-cause mortality in 20 countries worldwide during 2020: results from the C-MOR project
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Christiana A Demetriou, Souzana Achilleos, Annalisa Quattrocchi, John Gabel, Elena Critselis, Constantina Constantinou, Nicoletta Nicolaou, Giuseppe Ambrosio, Catherine M Bennett, Nolwenn Le Meur, Julia A Critchley, Laust Hvas Mortensen, Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Llanes, Mario Chong, Gleb Denissov, Petra Klepac, Lucy P Goldsmith, Antonio José Leal Costa, Terje P Hagen, Marie Chan Sun, Qian Huang, Nataliia Pidmurniak, Inbar Zucker, Joseph Cuthbertson, Bo Burström, Manuel Barron, Ivan Eržen, Fabrizio Stracci, Wilson Calmon, Cyndy Martial, Olesia Verstiuk, Zalman Kaufman, Wenjing Tao, Maia Kereselidze, Nino Chikhladze, Antonis Polemitis, Andreas Charalambous, University of Nicosia, École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique [EHESP] (EHESP), Département Méthodes quantitatives en santé publique (METIS), Centre de Recherches sur l'Action Politique en Europe (ARENES), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut d'Études Politiques [IEP] - Rennes-École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique [EHESP] (EHESP)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), This work was supported by the University of Nicosia Medical School (internal funding). The funding source did not have any involvement in study design, the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, and or in the decision to submit the paper for publication.
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Pandemic ,Epidemiology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,COVID-19 ,Global impact ,Infection control ,[SDV.SPEE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Santé publique et épidémiologie ,General Medicine ,Excess mortality ,All-cause mortality - Abstract
Background To understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality, this study investigates overall, sex- and age-specific excess all-cause mortality in 20 countries, during 2020. Methods Total, sex- and age-specific weekly all-cause mortality for 2015–2020 was collected from national vital statistics databases. Excess mortality for 2020 was calculated by comparing weekly 2020 observed mortality against expected mortality, estimated from historical data (2015–2019) accounting for seasonality, long- and short-term trends. Crude and age-standardized rates were analysed for total and sex-specific mortality. Results Austria, Brazil, Cyprus, England and Wales, France, Georgia, Israel, Italy, Northern Ireland, Peru, Scotland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the USA displayed substantial excess age-standardized mortality of varying duration during 2020, while Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Mauritius, Norway, and Ukraine did not. In sex-specific analyses, excess mortality was higher in males than females, except for Slovenia (higher in females) and Cyprus (similar in both sexes). Lastly, for most countries substantial excess mortality was only detectable (Austria, Cyprus, Israel, and Slovenia) or was higher (Brazil, England and Wales, France, Georgia, Italy, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Peru and the USA) in the oldest age group investigated. Peru demonstrated substantial excess mortality even in the Conclusions This study highlights that excess all-cause mortality during 2020 is context dependent, with specific countries, sex- and age-groups being most affected. As the pandemic continues, tracking excess mortality is important to accurately estimate the true toll of COVID-19, while at the same time investigating the effects of changing contexts, different variants, testing, quarantine, and vaccination strategies.
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- 2022
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