Curbing smoking and drinking, salt intake, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and obesity can prevent more than 37 million premature deaths by 2025, according to an analysis published on Saturday.
If globally-adopted targets for reducing these risk factors are met, the risk of dying prematurely from heart or lung disease, stroke, cancer or diabetes will fall by 22 percent in men and by 19 percent among women in 2025, compared with 2010, a team of researchers wrote in the medical journal Lancet.
“Worldwide, this improvement is equivalent to delaying or preventing at least 16 million deaths in people aged 30 to 70 years [old] and 21 million in those aged 70 years or older, over 15 years,” they said.
The targets are to reduce tobacco use by 30 percent, alcohol consumption by 10 percent, salt intake by 30 percent, high blood pressure by 25 percent and to halt the rise in the prevalence of obesity and diabetes.
A more ambitious 50 percent cut in smoking rates by 2025 would reduce the risks of premature death by more than 24 percent in men and by 20 percent in women, the team wrote.
The researchers used national population data and epidemiological models for their calculations.
“Most of the benefits will be seen in low-income and middle-income countries, where as many as 31 million deaths could be prevented,” study coauthor Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London said.
Not reaching the targets would result in 38.8 million premature deaths in 2025 alone — 10.5 million more than in 2010, the team said.
For the purposes of the study, premature mortality was defined as the probability of dying between the ages of 30 and 70.
The UN is targeting a 25 percent reduction in premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases over the period from 2010 to 2025.
This group of diseases is caused in large part by unhealthy lifestyle choices, including smoking, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol and unhealthy diets.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese