Cancer, heart disease deaths declined globally: The Lancet

While deaths from chronic diseases such as cancer heart disease and stroke decreased for most countries in almost 60 per cent of nations the rate of decline was slower according to a study published in The Lancet on ThursdayTogether with the World Health Organization WHO researchers from Imperial College London UK analysed the risk of dying from chronic diseases for 185 countries and territoriesThey found that from 2010 to 2019 the risk of dying from a chronic disease between birth and 80 years old decreased in four out of five countries 152 82 per cent countries for women and in 147 79 per cent for menIn almost twothirds of countries the progress slowed stalled or even reversed compared to the previous decadeNotably in India the probability of dying from chronic disease increased from 2010 to 2019 for both women and menThe picture was worse for women who had a greater increase in risk than men Deaths from most causes of chronic disease increased with heart disease and diabetes contributing heavily the study showedChina showed similar declines to Japan and South Korea over the period across most age groups and causes of death despite starting with a higher mortality rateChina also experienced the largest reduction in deaths caused by COPD linked to smoking and air pollution among countries with highquality dataldquoIn many countries effective healthcare programmes like medications for diabetes hypertension and cholesterol as well as timely cancer screening and heart attack treatment may not be reaching the people who need them and they are being left out of the health systemrdquo said Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial College LondonldquoIf we are to get back to the rapid improvements we saw early in the millennium we need investment in the types of healthcare programmes and tobacco and alcohol control policies that have been shown to be effective in reducing deaths in many countriesrdquo Ezzati addedFurther in most countries reductions in deaths from cardiovascular diseases including heart attacks and strokes were the greatest contributors to declining chronic disease mortalityReductions in deaths from a range of cancers stomach colorectal cervical breast lung and prostate also contributed to declining mortalityHowever increases in deaths from dementia other neuropsychiatric conditions including alcohol use disorder and some other cancers like pancreatic and liver counteracted gainsThe team emphasised an urgent need to further roll out policies and health care guidelines and programmes including access to preventative medications screening for early detection of conditions like cancers and treatment and support services both for longterm conditions like diabetes and acute events like stroke or heart attacksThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever