Hypertension most common cause of death

Study identifies high blood pressure, alcohol and tobacco as the leading causes of death

14/12/2012

While infectious diseases and hunger as a cause of death are on the decline worldwide, the deaths from non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure or cancer have increased significantly, according to one of the key messages of the published in the journal "The Lancet" "Global Burden of Disease Study 2010".

Tobacco and alcohol consumption have also significantly increased as causes of death worldwide, according to the latest study. In the "Global Burden of Disease Study 2010" number one of the global causes of death is hypertension with more than nine million sufferers. This is followed by smoking with more than six million deaths and alcohol consumption with around five million deaths ... According to the latest statistics, malnutrition and hunger in children is a significant cause of death worldwide. However, at regional level, for example, hunger is still among the leading causes of death in some African countries.

Study clarifies development of causes of death and diseases
"The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010) is the largest systematic effort ever made to describe the global distribution and causes of a variety of serious illnesses, injuries, and health risk factors, "reports The Lancet. Nearly 500 scientists from 300 institutions in 50 nations were involved in the study. They were able to access data from 187 countries and were supported, among others, by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, the number of acquired diseases, injuries and risk factors has increased in the last 20 years, but the GBD follows the basic principles of the GBD in 1990, according to Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) and colleagues in one of the numerous articles currently published in the journal "The Lancet" for the "Global Burden of Disease Study 2010". In the GBD 2010, the scientists see a significant contribution to the efficient design of the global health systems, because here significant developments in the causes of death and illnesses are shown so that targeted countermeasures can be taken.

Overweight with increasing proportion of deaths
Compared with the last "Global Burden of Disease Study" from the year 2000, some significant changes can be observed in the current study. For example, overweight in 2010 caused significantly more deaths than it did 20 years ago. In 1990, the too high body mass index ranked 10 th of the world's causes of death, now overweight here in sixth place with more than three million deaths. The largest increases in overweight-related deaths were recorded by researchers in Australia and Central and South America. Overall, the increase in noncommunicable causes of death suggests that unhealthy lifestyles, with little exercise, high fat and high sugar diets, and relatively high levels of alcohol and tobacco use, will continue to grow in importance in death statistics in the future.

Life expectancy has risen by more than ten years
The "Global Burden of Disease Study 2010" also reveals a pleasing development in life expectancy worldwide. "Since 1970, men and women have gained a little more than ten years of life expectancy worldwide," the study authors report. However, they limit that people spend "more years with injuries and illnesses". Men are now 67.5 years old on a global average, women 73.3 years. The average life expectancy in 2010 was highest for Japanese women at 85.9 years and for Icelandic men at 80 years. In Germany, women are on average 82.8 years and men 77.5 years old. Although life expectancy has improved significantly in poorer countries, life expectancy has not converged in wealthy and poor nations, but the differences have been manifested with an average difference of 40 years.

Decline in deadly infectious diseases
Overall, according to the GBD's findings, there were 52.8 million deaths worldwide in 2010. The proportion of infectious diseases was particularly reduced. For example, only 1.4 million people died of diarrheal disease, instead of the 2.5 million that were observed in 1990, the study authors report ... The fatal infections of the lower respiratory tract were from 3.4 million to 2 , 8 million, lethal neonatal disease (neonatal disease) decreased from 3.1 million to 2.2 million and measles deaths from around 630,000 to 130,000. However, there have also been exceptions, such as in HIV deaths, which have increased from 300,000 to 1.5 million in 2010 since 1990. Malaria mortality has also "increased by an estimated 19.9 percent since 1990 to 1,170,000 deaths in 2010," the researchers write.

Deaths from non-communicable diseases have risen
While overall communicable diseases have declined significantly, deaths from noncommunicable diseases have increased by nearly eight million since 1990. In addition to the increase in cancer deaths, heart disease (eg coronary heart disease), strokes, as well as diabetes mellitus played a special role here. About 1.3 million deaths were attributable to diabetes in 2010, twice as many as in 1990. In addition, the study authors reported a slight increase in deaths from accidents and injuries, mainly due to the increased number of fatal road accidents. As one of the most positive developments, the scientists highlighted the decline in deaths among children under the age of five. These have fallen in global comparison since 1970 by 60 percent. Certainly a success of the increased international efforts to reduce child mortality. (Fp)

Also read about the causes of death in Germany:
The most common cause of death is heart disease
The most common causes of death in Germany
Heart attack and cancer are the leading causes of death