• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Excess mortality from COVID and non-COVID causes in minority populations
  • Contributor: Cronin, Christopher J.; Evans, William N.
  • Published: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021
  • Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (2021) 39
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101386118
  • ISSN: 1091-6490; 0027-8424
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: Significance Research has documented the heavy cost COVID-19 mortality has placed on minorities. There is, however, less discussion of the inordinate burden that non–COVID-19 excess mortality (i.e., pandemic-era non–COVID-19 deaths in excess of the historical average) has exacted on this same group. Our analysis shows that minorities, particularly Black, non-Hispanic men, represent a disproportionate share of excess mortality and life years lost from non–COVID-19 causes. Early evidence suggests a combination of factors, including deaths of despair, murders, uninfected Alzheimer’s patients, reduced health care use, and economic dislocation. Moving forward, the challenge for the public health community is to understand the etiology of non–COVID-19 excess mortality and attack it with the same zeal as it attacks the virus.
  • Access State: Open Access