The epidemiological transition of years of life lost due to early death from common events in the northeast of Iran

Aims: To measure the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on deaths and health systems by calculating Years of life lost (YLL) Methods: The YLL from 2018-2022 for five common causes of mortality in subgroups of sex and age in northeast Iran was calculated based on WHO methods. Results: YLL for men increased from 188006 years of life in 2018 to 268106 in 2022, and from 147750 to 214296 in women. Women's YLL was higher in the first year of the outbreak (2020), but in the second year, men's mortality was approximately 28 years sooner than expected and women's mortality was 10 years sooner in the first and 26 years sooner in the second year. In general, aging people (≥75 years old) were more vulnerable two years ago, especially women. Two years ago, the YLL for men aged 30-60 increased, while the YLL for women aged 40-60 increased. Cancer or neoplasm has a regular YLL (YLL=9), but infectious or parasitic diseases have increasingly become life-giving (YLL = 1.4 in 2018 to 25.7 in 2022). The first year of the outback saw a drastic reduction in respiratory disease deaths (YLL in 2021 = 3.8 compared to more than 5 in other years) due to a neglect of respiratory diseases. Conclusions: A rise in YLL could be caused by conditions that require high levels of care but for which effective treatments remain elusive, potentially increasing healthcare costs.