California life expectancy fell by 3 years in COVID-19. Hispanics lost even more
The COVID-19 pandemic reduced life expectancy of Californians by about three years, with the decline being most pronounced among Hispanics, according to a new study based on state public health records.
Researchers from UCLA and Northwestern University analyzed 1.9 million deaths from 2015 to 2021 to carry out the study, which was published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
They found overall life expectancy for Californians decreased from 81.4 years in 2019 to 78.4 years in 2021.
During that period, Hispanics lost 5.7 years of life expectancy, Blacks lost 3.8 years and Asians lost three years.
Whites were also affected, but less severely. Life expectancy for white Californians declined by 1.9 years.
Prior to the pandemic, Hispanic Californians had a life expectancy of 82.6 years while white Californians had a life expectancy of 80.6 years.
Today, Hispanic life expectancy is 76.8 years and white life expectancy is 78.7 years, according to the study.
This study is one of the first to show a continued decrease in life expectancy in 2021 despite the availability of vaccines. Before the pandemic, life expectancy in California varied by less than 0.2 years annually.
Researchers correlated income to life expectancy and found the gap between high and low income groups widening from 11.5 years before the pandemic to 15.5 years in 2021. In areas where the wealthiest 1% of households live, less than one year of life expectancy was lost.
“We’ve had indications that the pandemic affected economically disadvantaged people more strongly, but we never really had numbers on actual life expectancy loss across the income spectrum,” said lead author Hannes Schwandt, an assistant professor in Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. “I am shocked by how big the differences were, and the degree of inequality that they reflected.”
Life expectancy estimates how long a cohort of newborns can expect to live if they experience the mortality rates of any given year throughout their lifetime.
As of June 30, 39,665 Latinos have died from the coronavirus in California among 91,795 total total deaths. That means Latinos are slightly over-represented among COVID-19 deaths. They account for about 40% of the state’s overall population, but 43% of coronavirus-related deaths.
Although many individuals in the U.S. identify as Latino, the study used the term Hispanic to maintain consistency with data sources and current guidelines on the reporting of race and ethnicity.
“Our findings are another, troubling sign of how the pandemic’s impact was not felt evenly across all communities,” said co-author Till von Wachter, faculty director of the California Policy Lab’s UCLA site and a UCLA economics professor. “Policymakers can use these findings to craft a more equitable response now, and also to inform how we plan for future public health crises.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California life expectancy fell by 3 years in COVID-19. Hispanics lost even more."
