People living longer but not healthier - study:
People are living longer but not healthier, according to the latest Global Burden of Disease, Injuries and Risk Factors study.
While overall life expectancy has increased by 10.1 years over the last quarter of a century, healthy life expectancy has only increased 6.1 years, the papers found.
The study analysed data from around the world and was published on Friday morning in The Lancet.
Seven out of 10 deaths are now from non-communicable diseases, including stroke, diabetes, chronic kidney diseases and drug use disorders.
Australasia in particular has a problem with drug use disorders - one of just two high-income regions where they were a top 10 cause of disability.
Healthspan improvement can't just be attributed to development, says Dr Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
"We see countries that have improved far faster than can be explained by income, education, or fertility," he says.
"And we also continue to see countries - including the United States - that are far less healthy than they should be given their resources."
Key findings:
- Life expectancy rising but 7 out of 10 deaths now due to non-communicable diseases
- Headaches, tooth cavities, and hearing and vision loss each affect more than 1 in 10 people
- People spend more years living with illness and disability
- Global progress on reducing unsafe water and sanitation, but diet, obesity, and drug use an increasing threat
- More than 275,000 women died in pregnancy or childbirth in 2015, most from preventable causes
- Under-5 deaths have halved since 1990, but slower progress on reducing newborn deaths.
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