Deaths Due to Non-COVID Illnesses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic killed many people without help from other diseases, but how were death tolls that were caused by other diseases and illnesses affected during this time? Did deaths due to illnesses other than COVID-19 increase or decrease? What could we speculate to be reasons for the increase in deaths due to diseases, if those death tolls increased? To gain more perspective on the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact on general access to healthcare and resulting death tolls due to illnesses, an analysis of weekly and yearly deaths in the United States was conducted. Data was extracted from the CDC deaths dataset covering 2014–2022.

Heart disease deaths increased from a maximum of 644,496 deaths in a year since 2014, to 692,949 deaths in 2020, a difference of more than 48,000. Average heart disease deaths increased from a maximum of 238.35 in a week since 2014, to 251.43 in 2020. The total death toll and average death toll from heart disease stays at relatively the same number through the COVID-19 pandemic. This could be due to lack of available beds in hospitals at the time, lower incomes, decrease in quality of diets, or lack of physical activity due to lockdowns. A decrease in immune system function of the general population might also have had an effect. These are all good questions for further analysis of this dataset and other datasets.

Diabetes deaths increased from a maximum of 85,451 deaths in a year since 2014, to 101,680 deaths in 2020, a difference of 16,229 deaths. Average heart disease deaths increased from a maximum of 31.6 in a week since 2014, to 36.89 in 2020, and 37.61 in 2021. The total diabetes death toll and average diabetes death toll, similar to heart disease deaths, stays at relatively the same number through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cerebrovascular disease deaths increased from a maximum of 146,346 deaths in a year since 2014, to 159,684 deaths in 2020, a difference of 13,338 deaths. Average cerebrovascular disease deaths increased from a maximum of 54.12 in a week since 2014, to 57.94 in 2020, 58.97 in 2021, and 59.08 in 2022.

It is worth noting that each of the yearly maximum death tolls due to heart disease, diabetes, cerebrovascular diseases were present in the year 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic began. A notable increase in deaths due to diabetes, heart disease and chronic lower respiratory disease were steadily increasing since 2014, until 2020 when all three disease deaths spiked.

Alzheimer disease deaths increased from a maximum of 120,043 deaths in a year since 2014, to 135,381 deaths in 2020. Alzheimer disease deaths lower back to around 120,000 per year in 2021 and 2022.

Deaths listed under the “Other” category were relatively uniform from the year 2014 until 2021, with a maximum of 29,045 deaths during 2021. During the year 2022, the number of “Other” deaths skyrocketed to 73,862, a difference of 44,817. Average “Other” deaths increased from a maximum of 10.74 in a week since 2014, to 27.32 in 2020, 58.97 in 2021, and 59.08 in 2022.

Chronic lower respiratory disease deaths decreased slightly, but not by a meaningful amount compared to years prior to the pandemic. Septicemia deaths and malignant neoplasm deaths did not vary by any meaningful amount compared to years prior to the pandemic.

Deaths due to all causes increased from 2,821,219 in 2019 (before the pandemic started) to 3,390,501 in 2020, a difference of 569,282 deaths. The yearly death toll for all causes rose to 3,427,340 in 2021. This makes sense because COVID-19 deaths, both as underlying cause and multiple cause, are included in this calculation and other diseases (excluding influenza/pneumonia deaths) also increased during this time span. However, there could be other factors.

This analysis sparks additional questions about the reasons for why “Other” deaths increased so dramatically. Deaths caused by influenza and pneumonia decreased dramatically from an average of 17.57 deaths per week throughout the country in 2020 to an average of 13.21 deaths in 2021, which was another anomaly in the data. Although there is not much data available so far in 2023 as compared to a full year’s data, average influenza and pneumonia deaths have returned to higher pre-pandemic levels, while “Other” deaths have increased from 27.32 in 2022 to 50.46 in 2023.