A recent paper says that heart disease is the world's leading cause of death - responsible for one-third of deaths in 2019 - and the death toll tends to increase.
Last year, China had the largest fatalities from heart failure, followed by India, Russia, the U.S., and Indonesia. Mortality rates from heart failure were the lowest in France, Peru, and Japan, where rates were six times smaller than in 1990.
According to the World Health Organization report, which reviewed 30 years of evidence, countries need to build cost-effective public health programs to reduce the incidence of heart attack by modifying behavior.
Heart failure persists at the top
During this era, heart failure cases almost doubled, from 271 million in 1990 to 523 million in 2019, and the number of deaths from cardiac disease grew from 12.1 million to 18.6 million.
Ischemic heart failure and stroke were due to the bulk of heart disease deaths last year, with a gradual rise from 1990. The root cause of 9.6 million deaths among males and 8.9 million deaths among females worldwide was heart failure last year.
More than 6 million of these fatalities have resulted in persons between the ages of 30 and 70. The results were reported on December 9 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) - especially ischaemic heart disease and stroke - is a significant cause of injury, raising healthcare expenses, and being the leading cause of death.
The report noticed a large rise in the years of life missed due to heart failure, and the number of years spent with heart disease-related disabilities doubled to 34.4 million from 1990 to 2019.
Other diseases
Another huge change since 2000 is that non-communicable disorders have surpassed the leading causes of death with communicable diseases. It is also taking a major toll on neurodegenerative disorders.
Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia are among the top 10 causes of death, with women responsible for 65 percent of all fatalities. The study shows that diabetes deaths have risen by 70 percent, with males more at risk. It notes that the Eastern Mediterranean is the most impacted area, with diabetes deaths having more than doubled in the last 20 years.
Bente Mikkelsen, head of the WHO Department of Noncommunicable Diseases, says NCDs in high-income countries remains a major concern. People there run the risk of cigarette disease, alcohol overuse, and obesity. However, she notes that 80 percent of premature deaths from NCDs already occur in low- and middle-income nations.
"When we are unprotected, meaning that we have not been able to modify the risk factors and also the health system is not prepared to respond to heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, and lung diseases, we see a very high toll of deaths," she said.
Disabilities are also on the rise, many owing to infections and health problems, the study finds.
Yet injuries are another significant cause of injury and death, it states. It estimates that road traffic accidents have risen in the African region by almost 50 percent since 2000 and in the Eastern Mediterranean by about 40 percent. Much of the victims are male.
Drug usage has risen as an important factor for both injury and mortality in the Americas. Data reveals that there has been an almost threefold rise in opioid usage fatalities in that area since 2000 and 2019.
In its next version of Public Health Projections, WHO aims to analyze the overt and indirect effect of COVID-19 on death and injury.
As of today, more than 1.5 million lives have, unfortunately, been affected by COVID-19. The risk of complications and death from COVID-19 is greater for people living with pre-existing health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory conditions).
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