Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic was assoicated with a significant drop in US life expectancy, with a 2.4-year decline from 2019 to 2021. This study evaluated if changes in life expectancy in Hawaiʻi followed the national trend from 2018 to 2022. We calculated life expectancy at birth for Hawaiʻi’s overall, male, and female populations from 2018 to 2022 using Chiang’s abridged life table method, with data from the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health and population estimates from the American Community Survey and 2020 Census. Life expectancy in Hawaiʻi was stable from 2018 to 2020, then declined by 1.3 years in 2021 to 80.7, with a partial rebound to 81.2 in 2022. Males saw a drop from 79.2 years in 2018 to 77.5 in 2021, rising to 78.2 in 2022, while females declined from 85.4 years in 2018 to 84.0 in 2021, rebounding slightly to 84.4 in 2022. Hawaiʻi’s COVID-19 response shows that early interventions and high vaccine uptake reduce mortality and preserve life expectancy. Future policy should focus on rapid-response systems and maintaining high vaccination rates.
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