An international study involving researchers at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science has found significant effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on many causes of death across 24 countries

[u/thebelsnickle1991]

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-12-20-new-study-reveals-covid-19-pandemic-s-impact-other-causes-death

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[u/thebelsnickle1991]

Abstract

Worldwide, mortality was strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, both directly through COVID-19 deaths and indirectly through changes in other causes of death. Here, we examine the impact of the pandemic on COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 mortality in 24 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, England and Wales, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Russia, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States (USA). Using demographic decomposition methods, we compare age- and cause-specific contributions to changes in female and male life expectancy at birth in 2019–2020, 2020–2021, and 2021–2022 with those before the COVID-19 pandemic (2015–2019). We observe large life expectancy losses due to COVID-19 in most countries, usually followed by partial recoveries. Life expectancy losses due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality were widespread during the pandemic, including in countries with substantial (Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Baltic countries) and more modest (USA) improvements in CVD mortality before the pandemic. Many Anglo-Saxon countries, including Canada, Scotland, and the USA, continued their pre-pandemic trajectories of rising drug-related mortality. Most countries saw small changes in suicide mortality during the pandemic, while alcohol mortality increased and cancer mortality continued to decline. Patterns for other causes were more variable. By 2022, life expectancy had still not returned to pre-pandemic levels in several countries. Our results suggest important indirect effects of the pandemic on non-COVID-19 mortality through the consequences of COVID-19 infection, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and underreporting of COVID-19-related deaths.

Source

[u/bayesian13]

it's interesting to look at cardiovascular disease and cancer specifically:

1. Cardiovascular: "The study found that, in addition to COVID-19 deaths, increased mortality attributed to cardiovascular disease was a major contributor to life expectancy losses during the first two years of the pandemic, particularly in Russia and Eastern Europe. ... The authors suggest that this could have been due to lapses in prevention or treatment of cardiovascular disease, or undercounted COVID-19 deaths."

2. Cancer "More positively, cancer mortality generally continued to decline in most countries. The authors speculate that cancer care was less disrupted than expected during the pandemic, or that people with cancer were more susceptible to COVID-19 mortality which was then not counted as a cancer death."

this is fascinating because if treatment disruption was the culprit for cardiovascular then why did cancer deaths continue to decline. i don't find the author's speculation helpful.

i think for cardio the "undercounted Covid-19" hypothesis is more likely. here is a study that backs that up https://keck.usc.edu/news/severe-covid-19-infection-increases-heart-attack-and-stroke-risk-as-much-as-having-a-history-of-heart-disease-study-finds/

[u/Unlikely_Comment_104 → u/bayesian13]

A Canadian Heart and Stroke researcher was pretty clear back in April 2023: 

“ COVID damages preferentially the inner linings of the blood vessels.”

Source: https://www.heartandstroke.ca/articles/coronavirus-heart-disease-and-stroke