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Abstract
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a major impact on our lives, both socio-economically and in terms of our physical and mental health. On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a public health emergency.
On 11 March 2020, the pandemic was officially declared. To date, 102,392 people have died worldwide by COVID-19, while many others have been affected directly or indirectly.1
The pandemic has had a disruptive socio-economic effect: approximately one third of the world's population was locked down and severe restrictions on freedom of movement were imposed, leading to a drastic reduction in economic activity and a parallel rise in unemployment. At the healthcare level, there has been an unprecedented overflow and collapse of hospitals.2
It is hard to imagine a health problem with a greater impact than COVID-19, but the truth is that suicide is one of the most important public health problems and one of the main causes of death in our country.3 The real magnitude of this problem is underestimated and has been increasing in recent years. According to data provided by the National Statistics Institute (INE), 3941 people took their own lives in Spain in 2020, an increase of 7.4% over 2019. The epidemiological and social impact of suicide involves not only mortality due to completed suicide, but also suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, as well as the consequences for the quality of life of the population.4
Unlike COVID-19, suicide is a health problem affecting young people. Currently, suicide is the leading cause of unnatural death in our country in people aged 15-29 years.5 Of concern, suicide attempts in this age group increased by 250% in 2020 compared to previous years.3
The aim of this study is to quantify the impact of suicide in terms of years of potential life lost (YPLL) and to compare it with the YPLL by COVID-19 in the year 2020 in Spain. YPLL below the age of 75 is an illustrative indicator of the loss suffered by society because of premature deaths...
Language: en |