The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 the largest systematic effort to quantify world health levels and trends has released its comprehensive review of life expectancy and global health threats.
The study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was published in seven separate articles yesterday in The Lancet, and involved nearly 500 researchers from over 300 institutions. Analysis of over 100,000 data sources, including surveys, censuses, hospital records and verbal autopsies, revealed that people are living longer and fewer children are dying. Increasingly, however, people are dealing with the chronic disease and disability associated with rich countries, such as cancer and heart disease.
From 1990 to 2010, child mortality and malnutrition has gone down across the board. Life expectancy continued to tick up in most parts of the world, with the average age of death rising to 70 from 59. However, this increase in longevity has also led to a larger toll taken by chronic illnesses and disabilities that strike later in life.
High blood pressure has become the leading health risk worldwide, followed by smoking and alcohol. Lung cancer moved to the 5th cause of death globally, while other cancers including cancer of the liver and colon are also in the top 20. AIDS jumped from the 35th cause of death in 1990 to the sixth leading cause two decades later.
Although there are health problems that come with increased longevity, the data clearly show a dramatic gain in overall global health, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross.
What upsets me, says ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, is that many of these diseases are preventable. Smoking for example, is still the world s second health risk. On the other hand, that leaves a huge portal for further beneficial public health interventions, such as helping more smokers to quit.
