The nation’s average life expectancy would rise by 3.32 years from 79.84 if cancer were excluded, demonstrating how the disease affects the expected lifespan in Taiwan by a significant margin, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
The ministry cited Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics on the top 10 causes of death last year as the basis for its calculation.
The interior ministry said that it compared the average lifespan of those with specific causes of death against the average lifespan of people with normal health — the greater the difference, the more severe the effect of the disease has on life expectancy.
Photo: CNA
Malignant tumors have led the top 10 causes of death for more than 41 years, with the average mortality rate of those with malignant tumors at 51,927, or 24.9 percent of the total national mortality rate, it said.
If malignant tumors could be removed, life expectancy could increase to 83.16 years, it said.
The discrepancy in lifespan for those with malignant tumors and those with average health dropped from 4.08 years in 2012 to 3.32 years last year, it added.
Heart disease ranked second in the top 10 causes of death last year, with life expectancy rising by 1.37 years if it were eradicated, the interior ministry said.
The COVID-19 pandemic ranked third and if the disease could be removed entirely, life expectancy could rise to 80.64 years, or an increase of 0.8 years.
Men are more prone to die from malignant tumors, heart disease, COVID-19, pneumonia, cerebrovascular diseases, accidents and chronic lower respiratory diseases, data showed.
Conversely, women are more likely to die from diabetes, hypertension and nephrotic syndromes, such as nephritis or nephrosis, the data showed.
In related news, Legislative Yuan Foundation of Health and Welfare director Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴) said that the group had raised funds for 165 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and donated them to cities and counties nationwide in response to the Ministry of Health and Welfare changing the regulations in May.
Heart disease was the second-most common cause of death last year, foundation secretary-general Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said, adding that knowing how to operate an AED or conduct CPR would allow individuals to save people or stabilize their condition until paramedics arrive.
Su said she was glad that the health ministry’s amended regulations include junior-high schools and police stations as locations that must have an AED.
All junior-high schools have at least one AED, but there are 614 police stations nationwide lacking such devices, Wu said.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition