Cardiovascular diseases, mortality and life expectancy
"Russia has the lowest life expectancy of all European countries"
Epidemiologists from Oxford University and Deakin University (Australia) have analyzed statistics on mortality from cardiovascular diseases in European countries, including Russia and the former CIS countries, Infox reports.
The results of the work are published in the latest issue of the European Heart Journal (Townsend et al., Cardiovascular disease in Europe – epidemiological update 2015, in the public domain).
In Europe and the former CIS countries, a huge number of people die annually from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) - more than four million people (this is approximately 45% of the other causes of death).
The lowest mortality from CVD among women (less than 250 per one hundred thousand) is observed in France, Israel, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. But the list of countries with the highest mortality rates from CVD among women (more than one thousand per one hundred thousand) includes Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
A similar pattern of mortality from CVD among men. Israel, France and Spain are among the three countries with the lowest mortality rates (less than 300 per one hundred thousand men). The highest rates (more than 1400 per one hundred thousand men) are again in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan. Unfortunately, Russia has also been included in this list.
Separately, the authors considered indicators for the elderly. According to their calculations, more than 1.4 million people under the age of 75 die annually from CVD, and in the age category up to 65 years, this figure is approximately 700 thousand.
The most prosperous situation is in the Netherlands, Israel and France – in these countries, the death rate from CVD is less than 80 people per one hundred thousand men over 75 years old. This figure is almost ten times higher in Uzbekistan, Belarus, Turkmenistan and Russia. As for mortality from CVD among women over 75 years of age, the picture is very similar. The most prosperous countries in this regard (with a mortality rate of less than 35 per one hundred thousand women) are France, Switzerland, Spain, Israel, Iceland and Norway. And again, the most disadvantaged – (over 350 per one hundred thousand women) – Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan.
Statistics on life expectancy also follow from these indicators. As the authors write in their article, according to the latest data from Eurostat, in European countries and the former CIS countries, the lowest life expectancy at birth for both men and women is observed in Russia (for men – 62.8 years, for women 74.7 years).
The highest life expectancy for men is in Switzerland – 80.7 years. And for women – in Spain – 86, 1 year.
"Mortality from CVD is much higher than mortality from other causes. For example, far fewer women die from breast cancer than from cardiovascular diseases," says lead author of the study, Dr. Nick Townsend from the University of Oxford.
"Many works note a decrease in mortality from CVD in Europe. But the burden of these diseases is still very high. In addition, the situation is very different in different countries. It is necessary to keep this in mind when planning various strategies. And, of course, measures are needed that would reduce the risk of these diseases – smoking cessation programs, promotion of a healthy lifestyle," the authors emphasize.
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25.08.2015