Cancer leading cause of death in Rich countries overtaking heart diseases
According to the Study, Cancer is to become the leading cause of death in the wealthy nations by overtaking Heart Diseases in the coming decades if the current trend continues.
Based on two studies published in The Lancet medical journal, scientists have observed a global “epidemiologic transition” between cancer and heart diseases.
According to the observation of the study, Cardiovascular disease remains responsible for 40% of deaths among middle-aged adults. Meanwhile, Cancer is now killing twice as many people suffering from heart diseases in wealthy countries.
In the opinion of Gilles Dagenais, a professor at Quebec’s Laval University and co-led the study, Cancer is the second most leading cause for death in 2017, responsible for 26% of all deaths. But as the heart disease rates fall continuously, cancer will become the leading cause of death within a few decades.
According to the researchers among the estimated 55 million deaths recorded in 2017, 17.7 million were due to cardiovascular diseases and conditions associated, such as heart failure, angina, heart attack, and strokes. 70% of all cardiovascular conditions were contributed by changeable risks like High blood pressure, high cholesterol, unhealthy diets
, and other lifestyle factors.In High-income countries, readily available treatment for High cholesterol and blood pressure medicines have led to a dramatic decrease in heart diseases in the past few decades.
The team also suggested that higher rates of cardiovascular deaths in low-income countries might be due to lower quality health care. They also found fewer hospitalization rates and little use of heart disease medications in middle-income countries compared to wealthy nations.
This Research was a part of Prospective Urban Epidemiologic (PURE) study, published in The Lancet and was also presented at the ESC Congress in Paris.
The Countries involved in the analysis are Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Zimbabwe.
Author: Swetha Kulkarni
