Negative excess oral and pharyngeal cancer mortality in Europe during the early pandemic years.
Oral Dis
; 2024 Jun 27.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38938075
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
The COVID-19 pandemic had direct and indirect effects on oral and pharyngeal cancer (OPC) mortality due to high COVID-19 mortality risk among cancer patients, and to the COVID-19 response that caused treatment delays and reduced routine visits. This study investigated the excess OPC mortality in Europe during the early pandemic years.METHODS:
Mortality and population data were gathered from the Eurostat database. The 2011-2019 mortality rates were used to estimate the 2020-2021 expected rates through joinpoint trend analysis. The excess mortality rates (observed minus expected mortality) with 95% confidence intervals (95 CIs) were assessed.RESULTS:
Statistically significant negative excess age-standardized and crude (age strata <65 and ≥65 years) OPC mortality rates in males and females, in the European Union (EU, 27 countries) and Europe were reported. The estimated OPC missing deaths in EU were 831 (95 CI, 630-985) and 1240 (95 CI, 1039-1394) in 2020 and 2021, respectively, with differences between sexes, age strata, and countries. The OPC deaths in the EU and Europe were 3.6% and 3.5% lower than expected.CONCLUSION:
Missing OPC deaths reported in Europe in 2020-2021 could be explained by changes in death certification of OPC patients who developed COVID-19, rather than a real OPC mortality decline.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Oral Dis
Assunto da revista:
ODONTOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Itália