Florida’s preventable deaths rose during the pandemicand not just from COVID.

Florida’s preventable deaths rose during the pandemic. It wasn’t just COVID. A rise in deaths in the state is another toll from the coronavirus as residents may have put off screenings and surgeries. Tampa Bay Times

Florida has recorded 17,000 unexpected or excess deaths from preventable health issues other than COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

Some were likely because the pandemic led people to put off checkups, surgeries and other preventative health measures, according to a new study. Excess deaths are defined as those that exceed the number of expected deaths based on historical averages.

The number reflects a trend that began in 2020 when premature deaths from preventable causes in the state rose from 174 per 100,000 people in 2019 to 180 in 2020, according to an analysis released this month by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York foundation that supports independent research on health.

In a state the size of Florida, with 21 million residents, that’s a large increase in a measure that historically barely changes, said David Radley, a senior scientist with the group.

The analysis of preventable deaths is based on data sent by the state to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventable health issues include drug overdoses, diabetes, measles, liver cancer, some heart diseases and infections. The number reported by the Commonwealth excludes those whose death was attributed to COVID-19.

Hospitals remained open during the worst COVID-19 surges in Florida, but many people may have opted to delay treatments and screenings when visitors were limited or banned and hospitals were struggling to cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients. That could mean, for example, stage 2 cancers that might have been caught progressed to stage 4 when there is often little doctors can do, Radley said.

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