Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on COPD Patient Mortality: A Nationwide Study in France

• Published in: International journal of public health 2024-02, Vol.69 (Art. 1606617), p.1606617-10
• Main Authors: Poucineau, Jonas, Khlat, Myriam, Lapidus, Nathanaël, Espagnacq, Maude, Chouaïd, Christos, Delory, Tristan, Le Coeur, Sophie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COPD; COVID-19 pandemic; Humanities and Social Sciences; impacts; mortality; population-based study; Public Health Archive
• ISSN: 1661-8564; 1661-8556; 1661-8564
• DOI: 10.3389/ijph.2024.1606617

We investigated the mortality patterns of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients in France relative to a control population, comparing year 2020 to pre-pandemic years 2017-2019. COPD patient and sex, age and residence matched control cohorts were created from the French National Health Data System. Survival was analyzed using Cox regressions and standardized rates. All-cause mortality increased in 2020 compared to 2019 in the COPD population (+4%), but to a lesser extent than in the control population (+10%). Non-COVID-19 mortality decreased to a greater extent in COPD patients (-5%) than in the controls (-2%). Death rate from COVID-19 was twice as high in the COPD population relative to the control population (547 vs. 279 per 100,000 person-years). The direct impact of the pandemic in terms of deaths from COVID-19 was much greater in the COPD population than in the control population. However, the larger decline in non-COVID-19 mortality in COPD patients could reflect a specific protective effect of the containment measures on this population, counterbalancing the direct impact they had been experiencing.