Cancer topped Taipei’s 10 leading causes of death for the 48th consecutive year last year, with lung cancer ranking first among the 10 most common cancer deaths for 34 years, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday.
A total of 18,024 residents died last year, with a median age of 80, which is higher than the national median of 70, Statistic Office Director Shen Chung-hsien (沈忠憲) said.
Taipei’s standardized mortality rate last year was 309.9 per 100,000 population, which was the lowest in the nation, aside from Lienchiang County, he said.
The 10 leading causes of deaths in Taipei accounted for 78 percent of all deaths in the city last year, and seven were chronic diseases, which made up 63 percent of the total deaths, department data showed.
Cancer accounted for 29.5 percent of total deaths, followed by heart disease (15.5 percent), pneumonia (11 percent), cerebrovascular disease (6.4 percent), diabetes (4 percent), kidney disease (2.9 percent), chronic lower respiratory diseases (2.8 percent), unintentional injury (2.1 percent), sepsis (1.9 percent) and hypertensive disease (1.9 percent).
The rankings were the same as in 2018, but the number of deaths caused by pneumonia and heart disease — excluding hypertensive heart disease — increased last year, and the number of deaths, mortality rates and standardized mortality rates in men were all higher — at 1.3 times, 1.4 times and 1.6 times respectively — compared with that of women, Shen said.
As for the 10 most common types of cancer deaths, lung and bronchial cancers topped the list for the 34th year, followed by female breast cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer, oral cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and ovarian cancer.
The standardized mortality rates in four types of cancer increased, with female breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma posting the largest increases, at 10.6 percent and 8.2 percent respectively, Shen said.
Given the high incidence of cancer, the department urged people to keep a healthy and balanced diet, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight, avoid smoking or chewing betel nuts and other unhealthy habits, and make regular use of government-funded cancer screening services.
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