Changes in mortality due to respiratory diseases around the COVID-19 pandemic: A multi-national comparative study

Various preventive measures in the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could disrupt the transmission of respiratory pathogens and affect the epidemiology of other respiratory diseases. The aim was to compare mortality due to respiratory diseases before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and South Korea.

Mortality due to respiratory diseases was investigated between December 2017 and December 2021 using two nationwide datasets from the United States and South Korea. Respiratory diseases were categorized into pneumonia, influenza, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and upper respiratory infections, defined by ICD-10 codes. The terms 'before the COVID-19 pandemic' and 'during the COVID-19 pandemic' refer to the intervals from December 2017 to February 2020 and from March 2020 to December 2021, respectively.

Mortality due to respiratory diseases decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and South Korea, except for upper respiratory infection. Although a sharp increase in mortality was noted in the winter compared with other seasons before the COVID-19 pandemic, the winter mortality peaks for pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lower respiratory diseases were reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, winter mortality due to pneumonia declined from 17,167 deaths in 2017-2018 to 11,745 deaths in 2020-2021. Similarly, influenza mortality decreased from 9676 to 165 deaths, and deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases declined from 47,905 to 36,674. South Korea showed a trend comparable to that of the United States. These changes were not observed in upper respiratory infections. Trend of annual mortality for each respiratory disease was significantly different before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, except for influenza in the under-70 age group and upper respiratory infections in all age groups.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the epidemiology of respiratory diseases. The findings suggest that various preventive measures in the COVID-19 pandemic might have contributed to changes in their epidemiology.