WOMEN IN Cyprus and men in Iceland have the lowest risk worldwide of dying before the age of 60, a study by the Lancet medical journal revealed yesterday.
However the chances of a Cypriot man dying before age 60 have risen since the comparison period of 1970 and they currently rank 14th in the world, down from 6th place in 1970.
Turkish Cypriots have not been included in the study.
Every year, more than 7·7 million children die before their fifth birthday. However, over three times that number of adults — nearly 24 million — die under the age of 60 years.
According to the study, which covered 187 countries just 38 women in every 1,000 die before age 60 in Cyprus, putting the island in 1st place. In 1970 Cypriot women ranked in 10th place.
In the UK in 2010 the figure is 58 women per 1,000. The only western European countries where women do worse than the UK are Belgium, with a rate of 60, and Denmark with a rate of 65 per 1,000.
Countries that also have a low risk of female mortality after Cyprus include South Korea with 40 premature deaths per 1,000, and Japan, Italy and Greece with a shared rate of 41 per 1,000. “Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Iceland, Italy, and Cyprus all remained in the top ten between 1970 and 2010. In 1970, the countries with the lowest risks of female mortality were all in Europe or the Mediterranean,” said the report.
In 1970 Greek women ranked in 3rd place in 1970 and are now in 4th place while Greek men were in the number one spot in 1970, they have now fallen to 22nd.
“Research shows that across countries, inequality in adult mortality has grown to the point where adult men in Swaziland — the country with the worst mortality rate — now have a probability of premature death that is nine times the mortality rate of the best country, Cyprus,” said Dr Christopher Murray of the University of Washington in Seattle whose team compiled the Lancet report.
Murray and colleagues used a complex formula to calculate the probability that someone aged 15 will die before they reach 60. They believe their method paints a more accurate picture than methods used by the United Nations, and can be used to
compare countries with populations of different ages.
Researchers looked at data, including censuses, death registrations and surveys, to compile the estimated number of early deaths in 1970, 1990 and 2010.
The study found that in most places men had twice the relative mortality rate of women. In the UK death rate is 93 per 1,000, compared with lower rates in Cyprus, Greece and Italy. The highest risk of early death for men in Western Europe was in Finland, closely followed by Portugal, France and Denmark.
Part of the reasons for reduced mortality rates may lie in poorer survival rates from heart disease and cancer and lack of access to life-saving drugs and treatments, the study said. Although other countries are accelerating in their rate of improvement, the Lancet quoted findings of a US survey which showed that AIDS, smoking and obesity were reversing progress made in helping people live longer around the world, with mortality rates worsening over the past 20 years in 37 countries.
Murray said lack of information about mortality rates globally was a scandal.
“The decline in adult mortality is manifesting itself differently in each region and could be attributed to one or a combination of the following factors: increase in income, improvement in education, adoption of modern health technology and access to health care,” he said.
“The prevention of premature adult death is just as important for global health policy as the improvement of child survival. Routine monitoring of adult mortality should be given much greater emphasis.”
No one from the Health Ministry or Medical Association could yesterday comment on the report but according to EU studies the biggest risk factors for Cypriot men were smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and low physical activity.
The highest risks for Cypriot women were high blood pressure, and weight related issues such as high cholesterol and iron deficiency.
The biggest killer among Cypriot men was cardiovascular disease and for women organ diseases.
