Last Updated: Feb 13, 2023

A recent study has assessed excess deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 among physicians in the United States from March 2020 and December 2021.  The study has found that despite being at higher risk of contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus, physicians living in the US saw fewer excess deaths due to the disease as compared to doctors who were been physically active. The authors of the study have said that regardless of age, all US doctors evidently witnessed lower excess deaths as compared to the general population in the United States. Therefore, the excess number of deaths every 100000 people-years among active physicians offering direct patient treatment was 27, while the same for physicians who were not physically active was 140. The findings of the study have been released in the journal known as JAMA Internal Medicine. The authors of the study have used data from the American Medical Association (AMA) for this recent research. Researchers have stated that excess deaths in relatively older physicians who were physically active and engaged in the direct treatment of COVID-19 patients appeared to be high. Experts have said that consequently, public health policies should try and mitigate the risk of COVID-19 in the group of high-risk patients on priority. The outcomes of the study have shown that protective measures implemented at hospitals like obligatory use of personal protective tools, observance of infection deterrence procedures, and enough staffing, have been proven to be effective in averting excess death among doctors in the US.

More than a million people have died in the US due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 epidemic (SARS-CoV-2). According to the report, healthcare providers played a significant role in providing treatment for patients with COVID-19, particularly in the first year. In addition to the stress of work, US doctors were also affected by high levels of death during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there were no studies that examined the number of deaths of doctors who lived in the United States. According to the authors of the study, any future COVID-19 spikes could result in overcrowding healthcare facilities and a rise in deaths among the general population. To prevent excessive deaths in America, it is important to protect physicians. The study involved health experts from the US who analyzed the AMA data between January 2016 and February 2020 in order to identify deaths among doctors who were aged between 45 and 84 years. To estimate the number of deaths in this country, they have analyzed probable deaths between March 2020 and December 2021. These evaluations have been compared with the number of deaths in the country’s general population.

The authors of the study have annualized excess death evaluations to excess deaths every 100,000 person-years. Eventually, they examined the study sample composited by age and their area of proficiency and conducted sensitivity studies as well.  In the study, the physician population in the country assessed during the study period accounted for 34.7 percent of men and 65.3 percent of women. As per the data, around 622 more mortalities than predicted took place in a monthly mean of 785631 doctors, consistent with 43 excess mortalities every 100000 person-years from March 2020 to December 2021. In physicians who were physically active, excess death numbers shot up to 70 in December 2020 before decreasing quickly in 2021. Nonetheless, after April 2021, doctors in the United States faced no statistically major excess deaths, showing that the excess deaths reduced with the accessibility of COVID-19 vaccines.


ABOUT AUTHOR

Devoted my whole life to words - reading, writing and trying to be original on social media. Got certified in digital marketing - still not cool enough to be an influencer. Finished a master’s degree focused in Literature, Publishing, Mass Media. Hobbies include traveling, reading and hoping that yoga will be the thing to finally teach me some patience. Would like to take over the world at some point, but that’s an optional dream. Maybe modern tech can help me do that?