Pandemic restrictions have led to longer life expectancy for Australians, according to a new study from the Australian National University (ANU).
Demographer at ANU’s College of Arts and Social Sciences and study co-author, Vladimir Canudas-Romo said the jump in life expectancy in 2020 was the greatest increase in longevity expectations of all of the countries examined in the study.
“Instead of the expected average annual increase in longevity of 0.09-0.14 years seen from 2015 to 2019, researchers found an increase of 0.7 years from 2019 to 2020 for both females and males,” Professor Canudas-Romo said.
“The countries with the next highest increases were Denmark and Norway, both with 0.1 and 0.2 years for females and males respectively,” he said.
“In contrast, the United States has seen a decrease in life expectancy, with losses of -1.7 and -2.2 years for females and males respectively.”
Professor Canudas-Romo said Australia’s quick response to the pandemic, including closing borders and implementing lockdowns, was what differentiated its longevity outcome from the United States.
“Australia was in a unique position to be able to close borders to the rest of the world,” he said.
“Now with the strong compliance on vaccinations, we are likely to be one of the safest places in the world.”
He said lockdowns led to longer lives because of a “sharp decline in the spread of other infectious diseases due to COVID-19 containment measures”.
Professor Canudas-Romo said an example of this was the 20 per cent fall in deaths caused by pneumonia or influenza during the country’s lockdowns.
He said there was also an effect on non-infectious diseases, including a reduction in deaths due to cancer and cardiovascular diseases, “which accounted for a great share of the mortality reductions.”
Researcher at ANU’s College of Arts and Social Sciences and study co-author, Brian Houle said the decline in social mobility triggered a large reduction in the number of road traffic accidents.
However, he said the question of whether the increase in life expectancy would continue in a post-pandemic Australia remained.
“It’s hard to make a long-term assessment for this unusual increase,” Associate Professor Houle said.
“If working from home remains popular, with fewer people on the road commuting at peak times, that might result in reduced road accidents compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
The ANU study, Quantifying impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Australian life expectancy, can be accessed on the International Journal of Epidemiology website at this PS News link.
