Summary: Life expectancy is a widely used indicator of population health and was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries. Recent analysis of causes of death (e.g. cardiovascular diseases, cancers, suicides) and their contributions to life-expectancy changes uncovered the indirect pathways through which the pandemic has affected mortality and population health. In this talk I will present up-to-date mortality trends and address three questions:
- Has life expectancy recovered fully to pre-pandemic levels?
- Has it reached the levels expected had the pandemic not happened?
- Have cause-of-death profiles been reshaped in post pandemic years?
José Manuel Aburto is the Brass Blacker Associate Professor of Demography at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where he leads the Mortality and Inequalities Research Group, supported by a Wellcome Career Development Award. Prior to joining LSHTM, he held prestigious fellowships, including the Newton International Fellowship and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at the University of Oxford, where he continues to hold a position at the Sociology Department, and served as Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Denmark.
He earned his MA in Demography from El Colegio de México and completed his PhD through a collaborative program between the University of Southern Denmark and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany.
His research specializes in formal demography and the measurement of inequalities in longevity, contributing influential work that has been recognized with awards such as the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters Silver Medal (2022). He also serves as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Epidemiology and Population Studies, further shaping discourse in demographic and population health research.