Last update:
29-Nov-2023

During the years 2015–2019, the health conditions of the population (27 member states of the European Union, EU-27) followed a very positive course which was depicted in the development of the relevant indicators. Unfortunately, the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic inverted the previous condition and eventually caused a negative impact on the general health of the EU-27 population. This article attempts to analyze the evolution of health indicators in the EU-27 during the period 2015–2020, according to the latest data from Eurostat. The relevant indicators are being depicted based on individual countries and as averages of the EU-27, as well as the Eurozone countries (EE-19). The life expectancy at birth for the EU-27 countries increased during the period 2015–2019, reaching up to 81.3 years, while during the pandemic, all this positive development stopped resulting in the recession of the indicator down to 80.4 years for the year 2020. This was the case also with the healthy life years rising up to 2.87% until 2019 (reaching up to 64.6 years), while during the pandemic year 2020 there was a decrease down by 1.1% in men and 0.9% in women. At the same time, during the first five years of the study (2015–2019), the total annual average mortality of the countries of the EU remained at approximately the same level (10.4 in the EU-27 and 10.0 in the EU-19, deaths/1,000 people), while in the year 2020, a universal upward trend of the index was recorded as there was an increase in deaths in all countries without exception, from +0.09 (Denmark) to +2.65 (Bulgaria) and an average value of +1.05 (EU-27). Finally, the unmet needs for medical examinations and treatments (being reduced to 48.5% during the years 2015– 2019) significantly increased up to 11.8% in the year 2020. The analysis of the evolution of health indicators is considered particularly important for the assessment of the overall impact of the pandemic on the quality of life of the residents and also on the health services in the EU countries.

Key words: COVID-19 pandemic, Health indicators, Healthy life years, Mortality, Unmet health needs.