High blood sugar, smoking and high blood pressure are the three most important risk factors for deaths among Taiwanese, with each one accounting for the deaths of more than 10,000 people in 2009, a study has found.
The three risk factors were among 13 major indicators assessed in a study by National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health and the Health Promotion Administration (HPA), the results of which were published in last month’s edition of Population Health Metrics.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare publishes the top 10 causes of death in Taiwan every year to promote early diagnosis and treatment, NTU associate professor Lin Hsien-ho (林先和) said at a news conference to discuss the study.
Photo: Lin Yan-tung, Taipei Times
Prevention is more important than treatment and understanding the risk factors that contribute to diseases is paramount in combating them, he added.
Lin said the team collected data on risk factor exposure from nationwide health surveys, on cause-specific mortality from the National Death Registry and on relative risks from epidemiological studies and meta-analyses before applying a risk assessment framework to estimate what role 13 metabolic, lifestyle, infectious and environmental risk factors played in causing deaths in 2009.
They estimated that high blood sugar accounted for 14,900 deaths, more than any of the other 12 risk factors studied, followed by smoking, which caused about 13,400 deaths, and high blood pressure, which led to 11,190 deaths, he said.
Removing or reducing those risk factors could add many years to people’s lives, the study said.
Among other risk factors studied, exposure to PM2.5 ambient particulate pollution was estimated to have caused 8,600 deaths in 2009, dietary risks (high sodium intake and low consumption of fruits and vegetables) to have caused 7,890 deaths, obesity to be responsible for 7,620 deaths and physical inactivity to have played a role in 7,400 deaths.
The other factors considered were drinking (6,350 deaths), hepatitis B (6,300), hepatitis C (3,170), high blood lipids (2,070) and betel nut chewing (1,780).
In total, the 13 factors included in the survey accounted for roughly 90,000 deaths, while Health and Welfare Ministry data on the causes of death show that about 143,000 people died in Taiwan that year.
Of those 143,000, about 13,000 died from accidents, suicide or old age, while 17,000 died of unidentified causes, leaving about 113,000 who died of identifiable diseases, 23,000 more than were accounted for by the study’s 13 risk factors.
Asked whether the survey had failed to consider other major causes of death, Lin said his study selected the factors based on local data and major risk factors identified in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study.
However, he said the GBD had identified 67 risk factors and it was therefore quite likely that several other risk factors explained some of the deaths not accounted for, adding that those likely had a much smaller impact on mortality in Taiwan than the factors the team identified.
Of the big three risk factors identified by the study, high blood sugar affects metabolism and is most often seen in people with diabetes.
In 2015, about 2.27 million Taiwanese had diabetes and 9,500 people died of the disease that year, according to the HPA.
Smoking causes cancer and affects cardiovascular health, increasing the risk of stroke. An estimated 24,000 deaths a year are associated with smoking.
High blood pressure affects nearly 5 million Taiwanese, according to estimates.
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