Globally, life expectancy rose by 6.2 years from 1990 to 2021, a new study finds.
The report, published Wednesday in The Lancet, found that reductions in death have led to the increase. It was the first study to compare deaths from COVID-19 to other causes across the world. Reducing diarrhea and lower respiratory infections, as well as stroke and ischemic heart disease are responsible for extending lifespans. The COVID-19 pandemic did interrupt progress in a lot of locations.
The super-region of Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania had the largest net gains in life expectancy between 1990 and 2021, adding 8.3 years to the typical lifespan. Management of the pandemic helped preserve the gains in longevity, the authors found. South Asia had the second-largest net increase in life expectancy in super-regions between 1990 and 2021 with 7.8 years, and that was due to a decrease in deaths from diarrheal diseases.
“Our study presents a nuanced picture of the world’s health,” Liane Ong, co-first author of the study and a Lead Research Scientist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), said in a statement. “On one hand, we see countries’ monumental achievements in preventing deaths from diarrhea and stroke,” she said. “At the same time, we see how much the COVID-19 pandemic has set us back.”
COVID-19 replaced stroke as a dominant killer, according to estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), which was published in 2021. The pandemic in 2021 was the worst in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as sub-Saharan Africa, which lost the most years of life expectancy due to COVID-19.
The study showed that there were steep drops in deaths from enteric diseases including diarrhea and typhoid. These improvements increased life expectancy worldwide by 1.1 years between 1990 and 2021. Reductions in people dying from lower respiratory infections added 0.9 years to global life expectancy. Preventing death from other causes also increased life expectancy around the world, including stroke, neonatal disorders, ischemic heart disease and cancer. For each of those, declines in deaths were most pronounced between 1990 and 2019.
“We already know how to save children from dying from enteric infections including diarrheal diseases, and progress in fighting this disease has been tremendous,” Mohsen Naghavi, the study’s co-first author and the director of Subnational Burden of Disease Estimation at IHME, also said in the statement. “Now, we need to focus on preventing and treating these diseases, strengthening and expanding immunization programs, and developing brand-new vaccines against E. coli, norovirus and Shigella,” he added.
