The study, published Nov. 13 in JAMA Internal Medicine, found overall life expectancy in the country fell more than two and a half years after the start of the pandemic. The causes for shorter life expectancy differs between men and women.
Here are four things to know:
- The lowest gap between sexes was 4.8 years in 2010, but the gap grew 0.7 years in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic until it reached 5.8 years.
- Between 2010 and 2019, the largest driver of the gap was higher mortality rates among men for unintentional injury, diabetes, suicide, homicide and heart disease.
- Some of the gap was offset by similar mortality rates from cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and increasing maternal deaths among women.
- The majority of unintentional injuries were drug overdoses.
“The increase in overdose deaths, homicide and suicide underscore twin crises of deaths from despair and firearm violence,” the authors wrote.
