Dying at home, lack of healthcare contribute to COVID’s hidden death toll

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/928220

 

 News Release 13-Sep-2021
Inaccurate COVID death counts were more likely in counties with a greater share of uninsured residents, less access to primary care, and more at-home deaths, obscuring the true impact of the pandemic on socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities.
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Boston University School of Medicine

 

Inaccurate COVID death counts were more likely in counties with a greater share of uninsured residents, less access to primary care, and more at-home deaths, obscuring the true impact of the pandemic on socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities.

The official US death count for COVID-19 has now surpassed 650,000, but the true death toll is likely much higher. Recent research indicates that approximately 20 percent of excess deaths—i.e. the number of all-cause deaths beyond what would have been expected in a normal year—were not reflected in COVID-19 death totals in 2020. These excess deaths include mortality that was directly caused by COVID-19 or indirectly caused by social or economic consequences of the pandemic.

Now, a new study from Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) has identified healthcare factors associated with excess deaths that have not been assigned to COVID-19 at the county level across the US.

Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the study found that a greater proportion of excess deaths not reflected in COVID-19 death counts occurred in counties with reduced access to health insurance and primary care services, as well as in counties with more deaths that occurred at home. 

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