Filenews 20 December 2023 - by Marilena Panayi
Literally Cypriots lost a year of life due to the coronavirus pandemic and the effects of the increased number of deaths, mainly elderly people, began to become clear as life expectancy in Cyprus, from 82.4 years in 2020, fell to 81.3 years in 2021.
According to the "Health Profile in EU Countries", published at the end of last week, "life expectancy in Cyprus fell sharply in 2021, while it improved only partially in 2022".
"In 2022, life expectancy in Cyprus was 81.7 years, one year above the EU average. Although life expectancy did not decrease in the first year of the pandemic, in 2021 it fell by more than a year. On average in 2022, Cypriot women lived almost four more years (83.6 years) than men (79.9 years). This gender gap (3.7 years) is smaller than in most other EU countries," the report said.
In relation to life expectancy, according to the data of the European report, "it was 82.3 years in Cyprus in 2019, 82.4 years in 2020, fell in 2021 to 81.3 years and rose in 2022 to 81.7 years. The EU average in 2022 was 80.7 years."
Diseases of the circulatory system and cancer remain the leading causes of death.
Analytically and as the data are recorded in the "Health Profile for Cyprus": "In 2021, diseases of the circulatory system were the leading cause of death in Cyprus and accounted for 25% of all deaths followed by cancer (22%). While mortality rates from circulatory diseases have declined over the past decade, cancer mortality rates have remained unchanged."
"COVID-19 was the leading cause of mortality in 2021 (accounting for 8.4% of all deaths), followed by ischemic heart disease (7.8%) and diabetes (6.8%). In the first year of the pandemic, 2020, only 2% of deaths were due to COVID-19, but in 2021 this figure rose to 8.4%."
Other conditions leading to death in 2021 were Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia (5.6%), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (2.2%). Strokes (4.9%), while deaths due to falls (0.9%), transport accidents (0.7%) and suicides (0.3%) were also recorded. In terms of cancer, the highest percentage of deaths due to cancer is lung cancer (4.4%), followed by breast cancer (2.1%), colorectal cancer (1.9%), prostate cancer (1.5%) and pancreatic cancer (1.4%).
In further analysis of the data, the European report notes: "The broader excess mortality rate, defined as deaths from all causes at levels above expected based on the mortality of the previous five years, shows that excess deaths in Cyprus were higher in 2020 (by approximately 13%), in 2021 by 23% and in 2022 by 25%, above the average of the previous five years".
This, according to the report, "suggests that the number of COVID-19-related deaths during these three years could be higher than reported, or that disruption to health services during the pandemic, such as the suspension of outpatient care and cancellations of scheduled surgeries, may have resulted in increased mortality from other causes."
It should be noted that according to the official data of the Ministry of Health of Cyprus, regarding the coronavirus, in 2020, the year of the appearance of the virus in Cyprus, 132 deaths were recorded. In 2021, the number showed a rapid increase, with deaths reaching 619, while from the beginning of the pandemic until today, the age of people who died is on average 80 years.
In terms of life expectancy in the rest of the EU, Spaniards with 83.2 years, Swedes with 83.1 years, Italians with 83 years, Maltese with 82.7 years appear to live longer than Cypriots, followed by Norwegians, Irish, French, Icelanders, Belgians, Portuguese and Dutch. Greeks record a life expectancy of 80.7 years.
