brad465
Established Member
Today the ONS released its latest reports on UK life expectancy for the 2018-2020 period, with further analysis here, including a heavy focus on covid's role (but not exclusively):
My thinking when it comes to measuring life expectancy is we shouldn't be obsessed with trying to lengthen it, as quality matters more than quantity. This is especially true where one spends their last years with a degenerative illness like dementia, and/or anything else where one relies on 24/7 care/dependence on another to get by. I know if I was in such a position near the end of my life, I'd be hoping "the old man's friend" comes sooner rather than later. There's also the wider costs to society of longer life expectancy, including health service burdens and more expensive state pension/old age allowances.
On the covid point more specifically, it's interesting to see covid being apparently responsible for a small decline in overall life expectancy, when the average age of covid deaths is slightly above that.
Covid-19: Life expectancy is down but what does this mean?
Life expectancy for men has fallen because of the Covid pandemic - but what will be the long-term effect?
www.bbc.co.uk
Life expectancy for men in the UK has fallen for the first time in 40 years, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates.
Life expectancy at birth in the three years to 2020 was 79 years for men, falling back to a level last seen in 2012-14.
Female life expectancy was virtually unchanged, at just below 83.
Normally, life expectancy in the UK and around the world increases over time - and falls are rare.
But the Covid-19 pandemic saw life expectancy fall across most of Europe and the USA in 2020, on a scale not seen since the World War Two, according to research from Oxford University.
And experts say further reductions may be seen in the next year or so, before life expectancy starts to recover.
But what will happen in the longer term, as the effects of healthcare disruption become evident?
Continued
My thinking when it comes to measuring life expectancy is we shouldn't be obsessed with trying to lengthen it, as quality matters more than quantity. This is especially true where one spends their last years with a degenerative illness like dementia, and/or anything else where one relies on 24/7 care/dependence on another to get by. I know if I was in such a position near the end of my life, I'd be hoping "the old man's friend" comes sooner rather than later. There's also the wider costs to society of longer life expectancy, including health service burdens and more expensive state pension/old age allowances.
On the covid point more specifically, it's interesting to see covid being apparently responsible for a small decline in overall life expectancy, when the average age of covid deaths is slightly above that.