Effects of the pandemic on non-COVID-19 deaths: analysis in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2020

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality encompasses both its direct effects, deaths attributed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as indirect on other causes of death. The objective of the study was to determine the variation in nonCOVID-19 causes of death in the province of Buenos Aires during 2020. METHODS: A population-based descriptive study was carried out using secondary sources. Specific causes of death coded according to ICD-10, disaggregated by chapter and group, were analyzed. To determine whether there were variations between the observed and expected causes of death, the values of the study period were compared with the immediately preceding five-year period (2015-2019) using the P-score method. RESULTS: All the ICD-10 chapters studied are below the average of the historical series. The greatest variation appears in the chapter External Causes (-20.0%), Diseases of the Respiratory System (-9.1%), Neoplasms (-8.1%), Endocrine, Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases (-5.7%) and, finally, Diseases of the Circulatory System (-2.2%). DISCUSSION: There is a variable change of other causes of death by COVID-19 deaths during 2020. The analysis of multiple causes was useful to re-estimate, in the case of the group of influenza (flu) and pneumonia, the global participation of COVID-19 in the chain of events that contributed to the death.