Population age structure dependency of the excess mortality P-score.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the excess mortality P-score has gained prominence as a measure of pandemic burden. The P-score indicates the percentage by which observed deaths deviate from expected deaths. As the P-score is regularly used to compare excess mortality between countries, questions arise regarding the age dependency of the measure. In this paper we present formal and empirical results on the population structure bias of the P-score with a special focus on cross-country comparisons during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

Methods

P-scores were calculated for European countries for 2021, 2022, and 2023 using data from the 2024 revision of the United Nations' World Population Prospects and the HMDs Short Term Mortality Fluctuations data ser

SUBMITTER: Ullrich-Kniffka N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11428885 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature