Short-Term Lifestyle Alteration and All-Cause Mortality: Lessons from COVID-19 Prevention in a Low-Transmission Region (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Background: The COVID-19 mortality is very low in the regions with a low transmission rate and sufficient medical resources. However, strict prevention measures greatly altered people’s social activities, diet, and hygienic habits, which had potential impact on non-COVID-19 deaths. Therefore, this study is to evaluate the impact of short-term lifestyle change on non-COVID deaths in the region with a low COVID-19 transmission rate.Methods: We performed a retropective observational study with statiscal analysis via Student’s t-test (significance defined as P-value < 0.05). The number of registered deaths among 8.8 million permanent residents with specific causes from January 2018 to June 2020 were sourced from Xuzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Death rates were calculated and compared by weeks, months, and years with a focus on the period of COVID-19 pandemic from Jan 24 to March 27, 2020 in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.Findings: Within the COVID-19 timeframe, all-cause mortality (138.03/105 vs. 158.28/105 vs. 152.57/105, P < 0.001), respiratory disorders (13.99/105 vs. 24.48/105 vs. 21.22/105, P < 0.001), cerebrovascular diseases (36.35/105 vs. 38.69/105 vs. 38.61/105, P < 0.05), and cardiovascular diseases (35.70/105 vs. 42.06/105 vs. 39.55/105, P < 0.001) are consistently lower than those in the same period in 2018 and 2019. The traffic death dropped significantly, while mortalities of mental health disorders and out-of-hospital sudden death significantly increased during the pandemic time.Interpretation: Our study suggests the short-term lifestyle alteration can have significant impact on all-cause mortality. This could provide evidences for adjusting future healthcare policies to reduce specific-cause mortalities such as respiratory, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.Trial Registration This study was registered at the ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT 04550312). Funding: Xuzhou Talent Fellowship Program 2019.Conflict of Interest We declare no competing interests.Ethical Approval The medical research ethics committee of the affiliated hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, approved the study (9th, September 2020, No. XYFY2020-KL142-01).