The study found that between 2020 and 2021, the average life expectancy of Polish women fell by just over 2 years, whereas among Polish men the drop was even bigger, by 2.3 years, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency has reported.
The analysis draws on data from Poland's statistics office (GUS), the European Union's Eurostat statistics agency and the World Health Organisation, according to the authors.
Life expectancy down to 71.75 years for men, 79.7 years for women
The NIZP’s deputy director, Prof. Bogdan Wojtyniak, said: “In 2021, life expectancy was 71.75 years for Polish men and 79.7 years for Polish women, which means that women live eight years longer than men in Poland on average.”
Among men, life expectancy fell the most in the northeastern Podlaskie region, by 3.6 years, the NIZP said.
Less affected were men in the southern Małopolskie province, whose life expectancy dropped by 2 years.
Meanwhile, among women life expectancy decreased the most in the eastern Lubelskie region and the southeastern Podkarpackie province, by 2.9 years, according to the NIZP study.
By contrast, life expectancy dropped by 1.7 years among women in the southern Małopolskie province, the IAR news agency reported.
Negative health effects of COVID-19
Wojtyniak said that the COVID-19 pandemic had caused “a dramatic increase in demand for health services,” but it also sparked “a fear of using health services” as people were afraid of getting infected.
He added: “This combination of factors has meant that we’ll be feeling the negative health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for a long time to come.”
According to Wojtyniak, “cardiology care has been badly affected, especially during the first year of the pandemic, as well as early detection of cancer.”
He told reporters: “Health behaviours also changed; for instance, alcohol-related mortality has risen during the pandemic.”
Wojtyniak also said that the negative health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were most pronounced among seniors, the IAR news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, medonet.pl, keizp.pan.pl
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Michał Owczarek.