May 21, 2021

COVID-19 and Excess Mortality in the United States: A County-Level Analysis

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Public Health Policy and Practice

Keywords (Tags): public health

• An ecological, cross-sectional analysis of 2020 US county-level (N=2,096) National Center for Health Statistics data on COVID-19 and all-cause mortality found that direct COVID-19 death counts substantially underestimated total excess mortality attributable to COVID-19. The authors calculated total excess deaths as the proportion of deaths that occurred beyond the expected number of deaths based on data from prior years. Of excess deaths, 17% were attributable to a direct cause other than COVID-19. The proportions of these excess non-COVID deaths were higher in counties with lower socioeconomic status, higher prevalence of comorbidities, more Black and Hispanic residents, and counties in the US South and West. 

Stokes et al. (May 2021). COVID-19 and Excess Mortality in the United States: A County-Level Analysis. PLoS Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003571