Cancer was the top cause of death in Taiwan last year, claiming more than 50,000 lives, but the mortality rate fell slightly for the first time since 2009, Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics released on Friday showed.
Cancers claimed 50,161 lives in Taiwan last year, accounting for 29 percent of all deaths, the data showed.
That meant a person died of cancer every 10 minutes, 30 seconds, three seconds more than in 2019.
The cancer mortality rate was 212.7 per 100,000 people, down from 212.9, or 0.1 percent, in 2019, the data showed.
It was the first time the mortality rate had fallen year-on-year since 2009, the data showed.
When adjusted for age based on the WHO’s world population structure in 2000, the cancer mortality rate in Taiwan was 117.3 deaths per 100,000 people, down 3.3 percent from 121.3 a year earlier, the ministry said in a statement.
The age-adjusted rate helps reduce the influence of a country’s age distribution on mortality numbers.
There were 32,388 cancer deaths last year among people aged 65 or older, 2 percent higher than in the previous year and 29.8 percent higher than in 2010, the data showed.
The 17,773 people aged 64 or younger who died last year were down 3.8 percent from the previous year, but 7.4 percent higher than in 2010.
The figures reflect a trend of higher mortality among people aged 65 or older, the ministry said.
Lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death, followed by liver cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer in women, prostate cancer, oral cancer, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer and ovarian cancer, the data showed.
Excluding cancer, the other main causes of death last year were: heart disease; pneumonia; cerebrovascular diseases; diabetes; accidents; hypertension; chronic lower respiratory diseases; nephrotic syndrome and kidney failure; and chronic liver disease and liver cirrhosis, the data showed.
The top 10 causes accounted for 134,676 deaths last year, or 77.8 percent of the total of 173,067. Notably, the 173,067 deaths were 2,357 fewer than the previous year, with a mortality rate of 733.9 per 100,000 people, a decline of 1.3 percent, the figures showed.
The age-adjusted mortality rate was 390.8 per 100,000 people, down 4.3 percent year-on-year.
The previous decline in the overall mortality rate was in 2017, when 729.9 deaths per 100,000 people were recorded, down from 733.2 the previous year, the ministry said.
It attributed the decline last year to COVID-19 restrictions.
The number of people who died of chronic lower respiratory diseases fell by 10.2 percent, while deaths from pneumonia dropped by 9.5 percent.
By age, 126,881, or 73.3 percent of the total deaths, were among people aged 65 or older, followed by the 45-to-64 age group at 21.2 percent.
Accidents were the main cause of death among people aged one-to-24, cancer and suicide were the two main causes of death for people aged 25-to-44, and cancer and chronic heart disease were the two top causes of death among people aged 45 or older, the ministry said.
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