The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported a decline in life expectancy, revealing that today’s average life span has reverted to 2012 levels. WHO attributes this setback to the impact of COVID-19, which has undone a decade of progress.
Before we discuss the numbers, here are some standard definitions of parameters
Mortality: The estimated total number of deaths in a population of a given sex and/or age, divided by the total number of this population, expressed per 100,000 population, for a given year, in a given country, territory, or geographic area.
Morbidity: Refers to having a disease or a symptom of disease, or to the amount of disease within a population. Morbidity also refers to medical problems caused by a treatment. This encompasses both the prevalence and incidence of diseases, injuries, and disabilities in a population. Essentially, morbidity indicates the presence and impact of health conditions that affect an individual’s quality of life and overall health status.
Life Expectancy: Number of years an individual can expect to live
Life Expectancy at Birth: The average number of years that a newborn could expect to live if he or she were to pass through life exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at the time of his or her birth for a specific year in a given country, territory, or geographic area.
Healthy Life Expectancy at Birth: average number of years that a person can expect to live in “full health” by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury.
Insights
In its report, WHO noted that between 2019 and 2021, Life expectancy at birth decreased by 1.8 years to 71.4 years (2012 levels). Also, it indicated that the Healthy Life Expectancy at Birth (HALE) dropped by 1.5 years, reverting to 61.9 years (2012 levels).
The WHO also noted that the effects were non-uniform across the globe and that Americas and South Asia saw the greatest decline, with life expectancy at birth falling by 3 years and healthy life expectancy at birth falling by 2.5 years. Contrastingly, the report pointed out that the Western Pacific saw the least decline, about 0.1 years in life expectancy at birth and 0.2 years in healthy life expectancy at birth.
Developments over the years have improved the accessibility, approach, and affordability of healthcare, leading to an increasing trend in life expectancy until the pandemic. The WHO claimed that this decline is suggestive of how fragile progress can be.
Find the complete report below
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