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How COVID-19 Increased Other Diseases

Written by Ahaana Chadha

Reviewed by Lia Lalkaka


Research paper- Chen, Can, et al. “Global, Regional, and National Characteristics of the Main Causes of Increased Disease Burden due to the Covid-19 Pandemic: Time-Series Modelling Analysis of Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.” BMJ, vol. 390, BMJ, July 2025, p. e083868, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-083868. Accessed 3 July 2025.

Introduction

This research paper evaluates the causes of the increased disease burden that rose from COVID-19’s effects. 

Disease burden is the total cost of sickness on people’s health and society as a whole comprising deaths, disabilities and the economic losses due to those.  

The COVID-19 pandemic was a time when deaths increased, health declined and economies crashed. It had such a large impact on the world that it increased the disease burden globally of even non-covid conditions. 

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is an infectious disease spread by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that severely damages the respiratory and immune systems of the patient. Symptoms include fever, coughing, fatigue, loss of the sense of smell and taste etc. 

The pandemic led to widespread shortages in medical resources all across the world, causing healthcare services to face interruptions and problems dealing with not only COVID-19 but also other illnesses. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), taking tuberculosis as an example, these problems resulted in a decrease of around 25-50% in disease identification and management (worldwide deaths increased by 0.2-0.4 million). The pandemic also resulted in increased interruptions with tropical diseases due to understaffing. Moreover, it did not only affect other physical conditions but also affected mental health disorders like anxiety and depression due to increased stress levels along with the strain of prolonged confinement. 

Despite these massive impacts, there is less systematic research conducted in order to figure out the pandemic's effect on other causes of disease burden. 

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) is the most extensive study conducted to calculate losses due to disease and a study used this to see how much of the disease burden was caused by COVID-19 and what the other causes were. 


The Study

A study was conducted analysing GBD 2021 which modelled and analyzed data on 174 causes of disease burden excluding COVID-19. They used Level 3 causes. GBD 2021 was organized into 4 levels: level 1 which divides all the causes into three groups that are communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and injuries, level 2 which splits these three into 22 categories (like cardiovascular or respiratory diseases for example), level 3 which mentions specific diseases or injuries (like stroke or road injuries for example) and finally level 4 which provides the detailed breakdowns by identifying types within the level 3 diseases (such as types of stroke or road injuries as mentioned previously). Level 3 diseases were chosen because they are best for international data analysis and have complete data with clinical specificity. 

Using DALY’s (Disability-Adjusted Life Year, used to assess the loss between current health of population and ideal health) and creating time series models (analyzing data and organizing it by time to identify trends and patterns), they were able to figure out the other leading causes for increased disease burden. 


The Results

The analysis revealed major changes in disease patterns across both mental and physical health conditions. It was observed that, among different age ranges, anxiety and depression cases skyrocketed, causing an increased disease burden. Moreover, they identified that mortality rates for malaria were also high. These were the 3 leading causes for increased disease burden. Depressive and Anxiety disorder rates of incidence increased by 14.3% and 15.4%, respectively. The rates of prevalence for these disorders increased by 10.4% and 14.5%. These disorders increased across all age groups above five, with the largest absolute rise among individuals aged 15–49.

Furthermore, in men, vitamin A deficiencies were increased along with vision and age related hearing loss. In contrast, in women, haemoglobinopathies (blood disorders affecting production and structure of haemoglobin) and haemolytic anaemias (a condition where the body destroys red blood cells faster than it can produce them) increased along with fungal skin diseases, urinary diseases, and chronic liver diseases (eg. cirrhosis that scars the liver, destroying its ability to function, often due to too much alcohol consumption among other causes). 

Additionally, in terms of regions, the disease burden increased by depressive and anxiety disorders was seen majorly in European and Eastern Mediterranean Regions while diarrheal diseases prevailed in the South-East Asia and African Regions. Upper respiratory infections were mainly seen in the Americas and Malaria was the cause of disease burden mainly in the African Region. 


Conclusion

In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic had a disastrous effect on the world as it not only infected people and caused a global pandemic, it also raised both mortality and prevalence of other diseases. This highlights the need for resilient health systems capable of managing both pandemic and non-pandemic diseases simultaneously.


Works Cited

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Chen, Can, et al. “Global, Regional, and National Characteristics of the Main Causes of Increased Disease Burden due to the Covid-19 Pandemic: Time-Series Modelling Analysis of Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.” BMJ, vol. 390, BMJ, July 2025, p. e083868, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-083868. Accessed 3 July 2025.

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