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Life expectancy: Need for change in habits

Global life expectancy increased from 65·3 years in 1990 to 71·5 years in 2013, according to a new comprehensive worldwide study. Life expectancy increased over this period by 6·6 years for women and 5·8 years for men.

For many, this is good news.

According to the study, published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet on Wednesday, if the median rate of change of the last 23 years continues, by 2030 global female life expectancy will be 85·3 years and male life expectancy will be 78·1 years.

The study analysed trend data from 188 countries, including Malaysia. The title of the study report is a mouthful: Global, regional and national age-sex specific all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 240 causes of death, 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.

Leaving aside the lengthy title, the study, done by an international consortium of researchers coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, has many interesting findings.

It spells out the leading causes of death in the countries studied and points to global trends regarding life expectancy and years of potential life lost due to premature deaths, or Years of Life Lost (YLL).

In Malaysia, according to the report, the 10 top causes of YLL are (from 1 to 10, in order): ischaemic heart disease, road injuries, stroke, lower respiratory infections, lung cancer, congenital, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDs, and chronic kidney disease.

Malaysia is one of the few countries where road injury is in the top five causes of death. The other nations are: Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

What does that tell about Malaysian road users, and the road users of the other three nations mentioned above?

Earlier this year, a local report quoting research done by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety (Miros) said that on average, 18 people are killed on Malaysian roads and that this figure is expected to rise to 29 by 2020.

That is alarming. Despite all the traffic operations carried out by the police and the road transport department, especially during festival periods and despite all the CCTV and other cameras placed along roads, the number of traffic accidents continues to be high.

I checked the Miros website and found these figures for 2012: For a population of 29,300,000, we have 22,702,221 registered vehicles. That is very high and it probably helps account for the high number of accidents.

Last year, there were 462,423 road accidents which resulted in 6,917 deaths and 24,439 casualties.

This is a preventable cause of death but it needs a radical change in driving habits. Will that happen? Will Malaysians realise that it is better to be late than never to arrive? Will we realise that a few minutes of time saved, even 30 minutes, may not be worth it; unless, of course, they happen to be ambulance drivers. Will we realise that road courtesy is good for everyone’s health and safety?

The top cause of death continues to be ischaemic or coronary heart disease and this has been so for the past three decades. According to the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2011, coronary heart disease accounts for 25.4 percent of the total morbidity rate in the country. In 2010, a total of 22,701 people died of heart disease.

Although the average age of heart attack sufferers in Malaysia is 59, much younger people are known to have died of heart disease.

Here too, prevention requires a change in habits, in this case lifestyle habits. Malaysians can prevent or reduce the incidence of heart disease by leading a healthy lifestyle, including having a balanced eating plan and exercising regularly.

Just last month, we were told that Malaysia has the largest number of diabetics among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or Asean.

Also last month, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam was quoted as saying that one in five adult Malaysians over 30 is a diabetic. About 2.6 million Malaysians aged 18 and above are diabetics and this figure is expected to rise to 4.5 million by 2020.

Here too, changes in lifestyle habits can prevent or reduce incidences of this disease.

The problem is that the individual Malaysian does not seem to care – until he or she, or a close family member, is affected. By then it may be just too late.