Global burden of disease
Life expectancy in the world has increased,
but people began to live longer with diseases and disabilities
Copper news based on EurekAlert! – Life expectancy climbs worldwide but people spend more years living with illness and disabilityLife expectancy on average in the world increased by 6 years from 1990 to 2013.
The main causes of health loss are coronary heart disease, lower respiratory tract infections, strokes. These are the conclusions of a study on life expectancy in general and healthy life expectancy in 188 countries, published today in the journal Lancet – Murray et al., Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 306 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 188 countries, 1990-2013: quantifying the epidemiological transition – VM. The study was conducted by the international team of the Global Burden of Disease project.
Life expectancy at birth increased equally for both sexes: from 65.3 years to 71.5 years. Healthy life expectancy has increased from 56.9 years to 62.3. The growth rate of healthy life expectancy (healthy life expectancy – HALE) lags behind the growth of life expectancy – this means that people have begun to live longer with diseases and disabilities.
When considering the world data for individual countries, the changes for the most part remain significant, although for several dozen countries (including Botswana, Belize, Syria), the healthy life expectancy for 23 years has remained almost the same. In some other countries (South Africa, Paraguay, Belarus) it has even shrunk. In some countries, the progress is noticeable, and the increase was more than 10 years (14.7 years in Nicaragua, 13.9 years in Cambodia).
The differences between countries are quite significant, and sometimes within the same region: in Cambodia and Laos, those born in 2013 can expect to live healthy for an average of 57.5 and 58.1 years. And those born at the same time in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam – live healthy to 67 years.
As an important indicator in the study, DALI is used – the years of life lost as a result of disability (disability-adjusted life years – DALY). It takes into account the years of life lost due to premature mortality and health conditions that do not correspond to a full-fledged one. Each unit of DISTANCE corresponds to a lost year.
In 2013, the main causes of health loss, measured in DISTANCE, were coronary heart disease, respiratory infections, strokes, neck and lower back pain, road accidents. These reasons vary depending on gender: for example, an accident is in the top 5 for men, but does not even get into the top 10 for women, who, in turn, often lose years of healthy life due to depressive disorders.
Patterns of loss of health in different countries vary as much as the expected duration of a healthy life. The highest rate is observed in the poorest countries of the world. The lowest is in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Israel.
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28.08.2015