ABSTRACT

Millions of lives in Asia were lost in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, causing a reduction of 1.66 years in life expectancy at birth (e₀) in 2019–2021 and a reduction of 1.41 years in life expectancy at age 60 (e₆₀). Using the World Population Prospects 2022, we decomposed mortality changes at older ages (ages 60+) that contributed to Asia’s reduction in e₀ and e₆₀. Overall, changes in mortality at older ages contributed to more than 70 per cent of reduction in e₀ for all its subregions, except Eastern Asia (<37 per cent), and changes in mortality at oldest-old ages (80+) led to a reduction in e₆₀ by 25 per cent. The sex difference in reduction of e₆₀ varied across Asian countries, despite a similar pattern across subregions. These findings helped us understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on human mortality and the large variations across subregions and countries, which could have important policy implications.

摘要

亚洲数百万人在持续的 COVID-19 大流行中丧生，导致 2019-2021 年出生时预期寿命 ( e 0 )_减少1.66 年，60 岁时预期寿命 ( e ₆₀ )减少 1.41 年。利用《2022 年世界人口展望》，我们分解了导致亚洲e ₀和e ₆₀下降的老年人（60 岁以上）死亡率变化。总体而言，除了东亚（<37%）之外，所有次区域中老年人死亡率的变化导致e ₀下降超过 70% ，而高龄老年人（80 岁以上）死亡率的变化导致e ₆₀减少25%。尽管各次区域的模式相似，但亚洲国家e ₆₀减少的性别差异各不相同。这些发现帮助我们了解了 COVID-19 大流行对人类死亡率的影响以及次区域和国家之间的巨大差异，这可能会产生重要的政策影响。