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Treating Risk Factors
Could Produce Health Gains
Treating multiple risk factors that
increase the odds of developing a variety of illnesses could nearly
halve the number of premature deaths worldwide and increase life
expectancy, researchers said.
They
identified 20 major factors ranging from vitamin and mineral deficiencies
to smoking, drinking and poor sanitation and malnutrition and
showed how treating them could slash deaths from major diseases.
"This study shows that the potential
health gains from reducing major known but often over-looked risks
are enormous," especially for those societies that currently endure
the worst health conditions, said Dr Majid Ezzati, of the Harvard
School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.
In research reported in The Lancet
medical journal, Ezzati and his team assessed the impact of tackling
the risk factors in 14 regions of the world.
Eliminating them would increase
global life expectancy by 9.3 years and add 16 years in parts
of sub-Saharan Africa.
More than 90 percent of cases of
diarrhea, a leading killer of children in the developing world,
72 percent of lung cancers, 85 percent of heart disease and just
under 75 percent of strokes were attributable to the joint effects
of the risk factors.
"The findings highlight the need
for our public health system to put greater emphasis on disease
prevention by recognizing clusters of risk factors and designing
policies and programs for addressing them, rather than merely
treating their consequences," Ezzati added.
The leading risk factors include
iron, vitamin A and zinc deficiencies and childhood and maternal
malnutrition, high blood pressure, raised cholesterol, high body
mass index (BMI), lack of exercise and low consumption of fruits
and vegetables.
Unsafe sex and lack of contraception,
tobacco, alcohol, illicit drug use, poor sanitation and water,
household smoke and poor ventilation, lead, occupational risk
factors, unsafe injections and child sexual abuse rounded out
the list.
"The analysis showed that even
populations with high healthy life expectancy at present, such
as developed regions of the western Pacific and western Europe,
could benefit considerably from risk reduction," Ezzati added.
Reference
Source 89
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