CAUSES OF DEATH AROUND THE WORLD TODAY

by Capitel 1

The mortality rate of humanity during the last twenty years has been over 50 million deaths per year. Being aware of a fact-based overview of the common causes of death and how they have changed in a large-scale is important to have a better understanding of the times we are living in, navigate them with optimism and take care of our health.

According to the Global Burden of Disease 2 Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) —a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another such as cancers, Parkinson’s disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, most heart diseases— are the prevailing reason of mortality around the world and responsible for the majority of deaths in high-income nations. Across low and middle income countries, specially in Africa, infectious diseases, malnutrition, nutritional deficiencies, neonatal and maternal deaths are sometimes dominant causes of death. In Mexico, in 2017, the main causes of death were heart disease, cancers, kidney disease and diabetes. 3

An important lesson we have learned from scientific studies is that as time goes forward, the number of

1 Based on the article by Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, “Causes of Death”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org, 2020. Retrieved from https:// ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death (April 6th 2020).

2 A major global study on the causes of death and disease published in the British medical journal The Lancet. https://www.thelancet.com/gbd deaths from infectious diseases are declining and a larger number of people are dying from Non-communicable diseases. Studies show that NCDs constitute more than 70% of deaths around the world, mainly due to the progress we have made in fighting many infectious diseases.

3 Our World in Data, “Number of deaths by cause, World, 2017”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2RsgBxT (April 2020).

Another important fact is that the age people die has changed significantly. During the last 20 years, fewer people die at a young age. Studies show that in 1990 nearly one-quarter of total deaths were children younger than 5 years old. In contrast, in 2017 only 10% of all deaths were children under the age of 5 and 49% were people who were over 70 years old. This statistic may vary depending on the quality of life in each country or region. In countries with good health, the proportion of people that die at an early age is very low. In Japan, for instance, more than 83% of people that die are 70 years or older.

Regularly causes of death of children younger than 5 are associated with neonatal disorders, infections and congenital defects. This age group is also susceptible to lower respiratory infections, infectious diseases, diarrheal infections, malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies. In high-income countries, death rates are much lower and with different nature to lower income countries. In the UK child deaths are usually related to neonatal complications and in less developed regions, infectious and diarrheal diseases and malnutrition are large causes of death.

Worldwide, children between 5 and 14 years old have the lowest percentage of deaths in the total account with only 1-2%. The main causes of death for this age group are: accidents, cancers and malaria, depending on social, cultural and wealth contexts. Other causes such as lower respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, diarrheal diseases, and drowning are also frequent in this age category.

Dominant causes of deaths between the age of 15 and 49 are NCDs such as cardiovascular disease and cancers. Road accidents, HIV/AIDS and suicide are also significant causes within this group. In a number of countries (particularly across Latin America), homicide is the dominant cause for 15-49 year olds.

For those between the age of 50 and 69, NCDs are the top causes of death as well. In lower income countries HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis are also main causes. Globally, in this age category variability in deaths is much lower than any of the younger age categories.

Apart from deaths attributed to a single underlying cause (causes of death) we can also find risk factors associated with premature deaths. These risk factors are grouped into four categories: behavioral, environmental, occupational and metabolic risks. Most common risk factors for death are the ones related to dietary and activity lifestyle factors (blood pressure, physical activity, body-mass index, blood sugar, and dietary intake); smoking; air pollution; environmental factors; and safe sex (HIV/AIDS).

In high-income contexts, the dominant risk factors are related to unhealthy diets, smoking and alcohol intake, unlike low-income countries where factors such as dirty water, poor sanitation and child wasting are the top risk factors. In African countries, HIV/ AIDS and unsafe sex are major health problems.

Bibliography

Ritchie, Hannah and Roser, Max. “Causes of Death” published online at OurWorldInData.org (2020). Retrieved from https://bit.ly/34tn0y9 (April 6th 2020).

Ana Paula González Urdaneta is a Mexican artist with a focus on painting, drawing and print media. Her sensitive exploration of natural forms invites us to marvel and reflect about our humanity and the relationship we have with the world around us. anagurdaneta.com/about.php | Instagram @anagurdaneta