Global burden of disease: details
They began to live longer, but not more fun
Yana Khlyustova, "Newspaper.Ru"
Over the past two decades, life expectancy in most countries of the world has increased markedly, however, people have become much more ill. Department of Science "Newspapers.Ru", having studied the statistical data, tells about which diseases are the scourge of modern humanity.
An international team of scientists led by Theo Woz from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation conducted extensive work analyzing demographic data from 188 countries from 1990 to 2013 (see IHME Life expectancy climbs worldwide but people spend more years living with illness and disability). The result of the study was the following conclusion: for 23 years, life expectancy in most countries of the world has increased significantly, but people have become much more ill.
Only the struggle of mankind with some infectious and viral diseases has been crowned with success, but people suffer much more from high blood pressure, lower back pain and diabetes than two decades ago.
Life has become longer, but not healthierAccording to scientists, the average life expectancy of people of both sexes from all over the world has increased by 6.2 years (from 65.3 years in 1990 to 71.5 years in 2013).
Healthy life expectancy increased by 5.4 years (from 56.9 to 62.3 years). However, this has not affected all countries: for example, in Botswana, Belize and Syria, this indicator still remains at the level of 1990, and in the South African Republic, Paraguay and Belarus, healthy life expectancy in 2013 decreased altogether. So, for Belarus in 1990, this indicator for men was 58.7 years, and in 2013 - 57.9 years.
If we talk about our country, the statistics say that the Russians managed to overcome the pit of the early 2000s. In 1990, men could live without serious health problems for 57.3 years, in 2005 this figure fell to 52.3 years, but in 2013 it reached 58.9 years. For women, the average healthy life expectancy in 1990 and 2005 was 64.8 and 62.7 years, respectively, increasing to 66.6 years by 2013.
What did you manage to win?Theo Who's research team studied the incidence of 316 diseases and calculated how many years of life they take away from the average inhabitant of the planet.
Success has been achieved in the fight against neonatal (infant) and infectious diseases, such as diarrhea, lung diseases, meningitis, encephalitis, diphtheria.
Under the pressure of drugs, diseases common in tropical countries have weakened their positions, with the exception of two – Chagas disease (spread by bedbugs and affects the skin and eyelids of the eyes), as well as leishmaniasis (a person becomes infected through a mosquito bite, and the disease itself affects the skin, causing the formation of ulcers).
Less often people began to suffer from sexually transmitted diseases: gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes, syphilis. The number of years they take away from a person has decreased by 13.5%. As for the human immunodeficiency virus, the dynamics here are quite unstable.
In 1990-2013, HIV became the fastest-spreading cause of death: in 23 years, the number of people infected with it increased by 341.5%.
However, in recent years, the situation has begun to improve: in the period from 2005 to 2013, the number of years lost by the average person infected with HIV decreased by 23.9%.
Cancer and diabetes are comingAs can be seen from the above examples, medicine leads a successful offensive only on the fronts of the fight against infectious and viral diseases transmitted from person to person.
With non-infectious diseases caused by internal causes, the situation is much worse.
The duration of time taken away from people by malignant tumors increased by 9.3%. Frightening is the fact that at the beginning of the XXI century, all types of cancer began to occur more often, except for liver cancer caused by alcoholism, Hodgkin's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal cancer.
The incidence of all types of cardiovascular diseases (except cardiomyopathy) has increased, problems with the lungs, esophagus, musculoskeletal system have become more frequent. Sedentary work and sedentary lifestyle led to the fact that in 2013 diseases such as sciatica, osteochondrosis, arthritis and arthrosis began to affect people 17.7% earlier than in 1990.
Scientists recommend paying special attention to the state of the thyroid gland: the amount of time a person spends fighting endocrine diseases has increased by 17%. Diseases of the genitourinary system also continue to actively poison humanity's life: women suffer from gynecological problems by 11.7% more, and men now begin to be treated earlier for prostatitis and infertility by 28.7 and 16.4%, respectively.
Diseases of the XXI century affect not only the body, but also the mental state of people: in 2013, the number of years of healthy life taken away by mental disorders increased by 9.7%, and drug addictions – by 8.3%. It is worth noting that alcoholism is gradually decreasing: for 23 years, it began to take 8% less years of healthy life from people.
Summing up their work, the researchers list the diseases that take away the greatest number of years of healthy life from people: coronary insufficiency takes the first place, pneumonia takes the second, followed by stroke, sciatica and osteochondrosis.
Based on the data obtained, scientists draw the following conclusion: the world health system is gradually improving, as evidenced by the growing life expectancy of the world's population and successes in the fight against a number of infectious and viral diseases. In addition, it should be borne in mind that life expectancy is increasing, despite the fact that a number of serious health problems now, at the beginning of the XXI century, occur at an earlier age than 23 years ago. This means that humanity has made some – and considerable – progress in the fight against them.
Researchers warn: most likely, the trend of increasing the average life expectancy and reducing the average healthy life expectancy will continue in the future, therefore, governments of all countries of the world should pay special attention to the state and development of health systems. The full text of the work of Theo Woz's research group can be found in The Lancet magazine.
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31.08.2015