Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34162598›Full record

ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2021

Effect of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 on life expectancy across populations in the USA and other high income countries: simulations of provisional mortality data.

Steven H Woolf, Ryan K Masters, Laudan Y Aron

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
85citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

85 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Is Austerity Responsible for the Stalled Mortality Trends Across Many High-Income Countries? A Systematic Review.International journal of social determinants of health and health services · 2024
    Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Acute SARS-CoV-2 infection.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2025
    Review
  7. Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence and mortality of primary spinal tumors in the United States: A SEER analysis.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Psychiatric Epidemiology During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Current epidemiology reports · 2024
    Article

25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Steven H WoolfCenter on Society and Health, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA steven.woolf@vcuhealth.org.ORCID 0000-0001-9384-033X
Ryan K MastersDepartment of Sociology, Health and Society Program and Population Program, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Population Center, University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA.
Laudan Y AronUrban Institute, Washington, DC, USA.

Funding

Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health Related ResearchUL1TR002649 · NCATS · VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY · PI MOELLER, FREDERICK GERARD · 2018 to 2022
$19.1M
University of Colorado Population CenterP2CHD066613 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO · PI JANE A MENKEN · 2015 to 2026
$3.7M
NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR002649NICHD NIH HHS P2C HD066613
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo estimate changes in life expectancy in 2010-18 and during the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 across population groups in the United States and to compare outcomes with peer nations.

designSimulations of provisional mortality data.

settingUS and 16 other high income countries in 2010-18 and 2020, by sex, including an analysis of US outcomes by race and ethnicity. POPULATION: Data for the US and for 16 other high income countries from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Human Mortality Database, respectively.

main outcome measuresLife expectancy at birth, and at ages 25 and 65, by sex, and, in the US only, by race and ethnicity. Analysis excluded 2019 because life table data were not available for many peer countries. Life expectancy in 2020 was estimated by simulating life tables from estimated age specific mortality rates in 2020 and allowing for 10% random error. Estimates for 2020 are reported as medians with fifth and 95th centiles.

resultsBetween 2010 and 2018, the gap in life expectancy between the US and the peer country average increased from 1.88 years (78.66

conclusionsThe US had a much larger decrease in life expectancy between 2018 and 2020 than other high income nations, with pronounced losses among the Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black populations. A longstanding and widening US health disadvantage, high death rates in 2020, and continued inequitable effects on racial and ethnic minority groups are likely the products of longstanding policy choices and systemic racism.

Indexed as

Developed CountriesLife ExpectancyAgedAged, 80 and overCOVID-19FemaleHumansLife TablesMalePandemicsSARS-CoV-2United States

Identifiers

PMID34162598
PMCPMC8220857

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.