The research investigates the global impact on Years of Life Lost due to COVID-19

May 25, 2021

A recent paper co-authored by Héctor Pifarré Arolas, Research Director at the Centre for Research Health and Economics (CRES), and Guillem López Casasnovas, Professor of Economics at the UPF and a CRES researcher, has enjoyed widespread popularity since it was published in February 2021. The paper, titled "Years of life lost to COVID-19 in 81 countries", estimates that over 20.5 million years of life have been lost globally due to the coronavirus pandemic. The research has been well received by the general public and academia, and garnered incredible online attention.

To date the article has been referenced by over 100 news and media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, El Pais, and La Vanguardia, amongst others. According to Google Scholar the paper has been cited by 14 other papers in the three months since it was published. The article has also been viewed over 35,000 times, and shared by 1,125 people on Twitter. The Altmetric research tracker gives the article an Attention Score of 1557, which puts it in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by the platform. This significant public impact will help to propel the researchers' main findings, and highlights the cutting edge research being produced by the university and its research community.

The paper's estimates are based on an analysis of the difference between a person's age at death and their life expectancy. The years of life lost due to the corona virus were also compared to other diseases, including seasonal flu and cardiovascular diseases. The researchers found that the corona virus had a significantly higher impact than other premature mortality causes.

The paper's success and popularity may be attributed to its investigation into the long-term impacts of the COVID pandemic, and the need to take action to prevent further loss of life. The paper brings attention to the severity of the disease and the impacts due to the safety measures put in place to reduce the spread of the virus.