Early-death weeks associated with COVID-19: a comparison among France, the UK and the USA

Background Years of life lost (YLL) is recently used as a more insightful indicator to assess the mortality impact of COVID-19. However, this indicator still has methodological limits. This study aims to propose an alternative approach and new index, early-death weeks. Methods The natural mortality and social mortality laws were employed to support two essential assumptions: the sequential and translational early-mortality patterns of COVID-19. This approach was then used with the data related to COVID-19 to calculate early-death weeks associated with COVID-19 in France, the UK and the USA. Results As of week 20 of 2021, the rate of the total number of early-death weeks per the population of the USA is nearly two times compared to that of France and the UK, with 0.004% to 0.0021 and 0.0023%, respectively. The average numbers of early-death weeks after converting to units of years are 1.2, 1.0 and 1.3 years in France, the UK and the USA, respectively. Conclusions The new approach is significantly different from death counts, excess deaths and YLL. The early-death week index provides more insights into COVID-19 and can be applied promptly at any time as well as anywhere once excess deaths have occurred.