Monitoring life expectancy levels during the COVID-19 pandemic: Example of the unequal impact in Spanish regions

Background

To provide an interpretable summary of the impact on mortality of the COVID-19 pandemic we estimate weekly and annual life expectancies at birth in Spain and its regions.

Methods

We used daily death count data from the Spanish MoMo, and death counts from 2018, and population on 1 July, 2019 by region (CCAA), age groups, and sex from the Spanish National Statistics Institute. We estimated weekly and annual (2019 and 2020*, the shifted annual calendar period up to June 14th 2020) life expectancies at birth as well as their differences with respect to 2019.

Results

Weekly life expectancies at birth in Spain were lower in weeks 11-20, 2020 compared to the same weeks in 2019. This drop in weekly life expectancy was especially strong in weeks 13 and 14 (March 23^rd to April 5^th), with national declines ranging between 6.1 and 7.6 years and maximum regional weekly declines of up to 15 years in Madrid. Annual life expectancy differences between 2019 and 2020 also reflected an overall drop in annual life expectancy of 0.8 years for both men and women. These drops ranged between 0 years in several regions (e.g. Canary and Balearic Islands) to 2.7 years among men in Madrid.

Conclusions

Life expectancy is an easy to interpret measure for understanding the heterogeneity of mortality patterns across Spanish regions. Weekly and annual life expectancy are sensitive useful indicators for understanding disparities and communicating the gravity of the situation because differences are expressed in intuitive year units.

Key messages

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  Weekly and annual updated life expectancy are valuable indicators of the health impacts of the pandemic in populations.

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  The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain has been severe and highly heterogeneous, with weekly life expectancy falls of up to 15 years in Madrid, and with annual life expectancy falls ranging between 0 and 2.7 years.

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  Our results for Spain provide important insights into the magnitude of the pandemic in mortality levels across regions and are easy to interpret and compare.