• Alexander Rommel, Elena von der Lippe, Dietrich Plass, Thomas Ziese, Michaela Diercke, HeidenMatthias An derMA, Sebastian Haller, Annelene Wengler, and BURDEN 2020 Study Group.
• Department 2, Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin; Department 3, Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin; Department II 1 Environmental Hygiene, German Environment Agency, Berlin.
• Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2021 Mar 5; 118 (9): 145151145-151.

BackgroundThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic presented major challenges to the health sector in 2020. The burden of disease arising from COVID-19 can be expressed as the number of years of life lost to disease or death. For example, death at age 40 involves a loss of far more years of life than death at age 80.MethodsThe disability-adjusted life years (DALY) lost to COVID-19 were calculated as the sum of the years of life lost through death (YLL) and the number of years lived with disability (YLD), on the basis of laboratory-confirmed notifiable cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Germany in 2020 (documented as of 18 January 2021). The methodology was based on that used in the Global Burden of Disease Study. Pre-existing diseases do not enter into the determination of YLL; rather, the residual life expectancy that is applied in this calculation corresponds to a mean age-specific level of morbidity.Results305 641 years of life were lost to COVID-19 in Germany in 2020. The percentage of DALY lost by persons under 70 was 34.8% in men and 21.0% in women. 99.3% of the COVID-19 disease burden was accounted for by death (YLL). The daily average years of life lost due to death was lower for COVID-19 than for the major non-communicable diseases. Persons who died of COVID-19 lost a mean of 9.6 years of life; those who were under 70 when they died lost a mean of 25.2 years of life. Men lost more years of life than women (11.0 vs. 8.1 years).ConclusionThe effects of COVID-19 on public health can be expressed through the burden of disease indicators. This method yields additional information that should be put to use early in the course of future outbreaks.

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