Kiwis live longer in poor health
About 80 per cent of the country’s premature deaths last year could likely have been prevented, new research shows.
The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study 2019 also found Kiwis were now living longer but spending more years in poor health.
The international study, publi shed yesterday in the Lancet, analysed hundreds of causes of death, diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories and found the increase in chronic diseases — many of which are preventable — left the world vulnerable to diseases like Covid- 19.
According to the study, the life expectancy for New Zealanders last year was 81.8 years — an increase of 6.2 years — but our healthy life expectancy has increased only 4.7 years to 69.4.
That means we are living longer in poor health.
It also found that non- communicable diseases caused 86 per cent of the country’s premature deaths last year — an increase of 10.3 per cent over the past 30 years — and the top five took the lives of 15,480 New Zealanders.
By far the most common cause was ischaemic heart disease, which killed almost 6500. That was followed by strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia and lung cancer.
AUT Epidemiology and Neurology Professor Valery Feigin said about 90 per cent of such diseases were preventable.
Feigin said it was concerning that such a high number of deaths were caused by non- communicable diseases although the situation was the same around the world.
In 11 countries, including New Zealand, more than half of all health loss was now caused by noncommunicable diseases or injuries, the report’s authors noted. Data shows that figure reached 83.5 per cent in New Zealand last year.
Blood pressure, poor diet, smoking, obesity and high blood sugar were factors in the deaths of more than 23,000 Kiwis last year.
The study’s authors noted that improvements in health had started to stagnate in most higher- income countries, and had even reversed in several places, possibly because of rising rates of obesity as well as diminishing potential to reduce smoking.
Prof Feigin also pointed out that trend.
“What is particularly concerning is the number of deaths attributable to preventable deaths is starting to plateau and even increase lately,” he said.
“Cardiovascular disease, since 2017, has started to climb. We enjoyed a decrease during the past 30 years, quite significantly, but now it seems to be reversing.”
The most common risk factors for non- communicable diseases were caused by poor lifestyles, he said.
A poor diet and lack of exercise could lead to blood pressure issues, diabetes and obesity, which all put a strain on the body and could cause heart disease, strokes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — as can smoking.
Feigin said the health system was largely geared toward treating only those people who were high risk, which prevented only a small number of deaths.
The Government needed to shift its focus towards funding a population- wide prevention strategy for all of the risk factors as they had done with smoking, he said. Pre
‘ What is particularly concerning is the number of deaths attributable to preventable deaths is starting to plateau and even increase lately. Professor Valery Feigin, AUT
vention strategies for other lifestyle risk factors were non- existent, he said.
Policies that reduced the amount of salt in processed food, reduced the consumption of sugary drinks and alcohol and made physical activity more affordable would go a long way to reducing the risk factors and preventing unnecessary deaths, Feigin said.
Hospitals already struggled to manage the number of people needing treatment for preventable chronic diseases but New Zealand’s aging population meant that was only going to increase, he said.
The one positive of Covid- 19 had been the attention it put on the need to prevent chronic diseases as those with underlying conditions fared worse, Feigin said.
“This has highlighted the importance of primary prevention, not just for Covid but for future pandemics,” he said.