Taiwanese are spending more years of their life in poor health, Ministry of Health and Welfare data showed.
The population’s average disability-adjusted life years was 8.41 years in 2019, nearly a month longer than in 2018, the data showed.
Disability-adjusted life years measure the time a person spends in poor health, has a disability or dies before reaching a population’s average life expectancy.
Taipei Times file photo
Health experts introduced the measure in 1990 to express the overall health in a country and gauge public healthcare costs.
Chiu Hung-yi (邱弘毅), a public health professor at Taipei Medical University, said that the measure primarily expresses the social effects of chronic diseases.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the measure for last year and this year is expected to be higher, as disease prevention lifestyles might have led to a greater number of people experiencing poor health, Chiu said, adding that the numbers would be released next year.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has required many to stay at home and not exercise,” he said. “People with chronic diseases might have postponed visits to clinics and hospitals, which might have made it difficult to control their conditions.”
Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Director Chen Ying-ren (陳英仁) said that while many people have not exercised much and postponed appointments for medical treatment, fewer people contracted influenza, pneumonia and the common cold — diseases that mostly affect middle-aged people and the elderly — because they followed disease prevention measures that were imposed to control the spread of COVID-19.
“Whether this year’s disability-adjusted life years are to increase requires further observation,” Chen said.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said that there are two ways to address the issue.
“On the one hand, Taiwan needs to implement measures introduced by the Health Promotion Administration to help people stay healthy as they age,” he said. “On the other hand, the authorities need to enforce the Patient Right to Autonomy Act (病人自主權利法) to reduce the number of unnecessary visits to hospitals.”
People who have a terminal disease could be encouraged to draft wills, where they indicate whether they wish to deny medical treatment under certain conditions,” he said. “This would reduce the life years affected by disability.”
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
TOO DANGEROUS: The families agreed to suspend crewed recovery efforts that could put rescuers in danger from volcanic gases and unstable terrain The bodies of two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot have been located inside a volcanic crater, Japanese authorities said yesterday, nearly a month after a sightseeing helicopter crashed during a flight over southwestern Japan. Drone footage taken at the site showed three bodies near the wreckage of the aircraft inside a crater on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, police and fire officials said. The helicopter went missing on Jan. 20 and was later found on a steep slope inside the Nakadake No. 1 Crater, about 50m below the rim. Authorities said that conditions at the site made survival highly unlikely, and ruled
RSS