In 2013, a study revealed that top 10 health risks associated mortality in both sexes was topped by high blood pressure, then followed by smoking, high body mass index, high blood sugar levels, diet high in salt, diet low in fruits, ambient air pollution, household air pollution, high cholesterol and alcohol.
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However, the greatest cumulative impact on health comes from poor diet.
After looking at 79 risk factors for death in 188 countries between 1990 and 2013, the team from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington and University of Melbourne found that there has been a profound change in risk factors for death.
In 2013 there were about 31 million deaths globally in 188 countries due to the top risk factors. These risk factors contribute to ailments like ischemic heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Air pollution was found to the leading risk in South and Southeast Asia, and India is struggling with unsafe water and child under-nutrition.
In total, the modifiable risk factors assessed accounted for 30.8 million deaths in 2013, increasing from 25.1 million in 1990.
“We need to focus on minimising risks clustering from childhood to adulthood, such as poor diet and low physical activity, to reduce the burden our health system and ensure that we all live long and healthy lives”.
A new study has found that more Americans are dying from diseases related to high body mass index (BMI), and fewer related to high blood pressure and cholesterol.
“While alcohol is the number-two risk in Russian Federation, smoking is the number-one risk in many high-income countries, including the United Kingdom”, the findings showed.
In 2013, 21 per cent of total global deaths were attributed to these risks, which include diets low in fruit, whole grains, and vegetables, and diets high in red meat and sugar-sweetened beverages. Overall, the leading risk factors were the same as for deaths – high blood pressure, smoking, and obesity.
“The challenge for governments and the health development community more broadly is to heed this knowledge about the comparative effect of health risks more assiduously, and orient health policies towards their mitigation with much greater conviction than that now observed”, they continued. Its combination of childhood undernutrition, unsafe water, unsafe sex and alcohol use is unseen to the same degree elsewhere.
The study includes several risk factors – wasting, stunting, unsafe sex, no hand-washing with soap – in its analysis for the first time.
In the USA the deaths mostly occur due to conditions linked with high fasting plasma glucose and high body mass index.
Since 1990, the most risky factors have changed significantly, shifting from causes rooted in privation to those stemming from these kinds of excess.
“Smoking, high blood pressure and obesity are still prevalent among adult Australians and remain a large cause of disease burden”.
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The GuardianThe study also looked at preventable risk factors for ill-health. All three risks are associated with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
