Heart diseases top cause of deaths in the UAE

Dubai: Fatalities arising out of cardiovascular diseases have risen to the top of the list in the UAE, leaving behind road fatality statistics, according to an international report by the medical journal The Lancet.

The new Global Burden of Disease, Infections and Risks (GBD) study indicates that what we thought was just a trend — lifestyle diseases as a major cause of fatality and disability — is actually a reality.

The report, which is based on accumulated data of 25 years and carried out by nearly 1,800 academicians across 130 countries, was conducted by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Seattle, and the World Bank and published by The Lancet Journal.

This is reflective of the general health trends in the developed world where lifestyle diseases are a major contributor to annual death and disability figures, prompting health experts to call for a serious review of public health policies.

In the UAE, ischemic heart disease fatalities have overtaken road trauma deaths which were one of the major causes of mortality until 2014. In 2015, road fatalities accounted for nine per cent of total deaths while ischemic heart disease has overtaken with nearly 21.6 per cent of annual deaths.

The other three among the top five causes of deaths in the UAE, according the new study, are haemhorrage stroke, ischemic stroke and diabetes.

Dr Atul Aundhekar, chief operating officer (COO) of Axon Medical Group, Dubai, said: “The new study will change the way we look at our public health policies. The focus now for health experts is to understand how to change the prognosis of these diseases and build a healthier society.”

The desired shift in health education can be brought about by the individual, the family and other regulatory bodies such as the health insurance sector playing a major role in incentivising good health, said experts.

For example, to reduce the rising numbers of hypertension patients, the American Dietary Association instructed all bakeries to reduce salt addition from 4.2 per cent to 2.8 per cent. Dubai Municipality, too, announced a campaign last week to encourage hypermarkets to reduce salt in their in-house bakery products.

In many developed countries, there is a serious policy discussion about taxing sugar and cutting back on trans-fats.

Regulations like these would have a lasting and long-term impact in incentivising health, said Dr Aundhekar. “Since health insurance is mandatory and the burden of health care would eventually fall on the insurance companies, they could come up with ideas like having a different set of premiums for people who go to the gym regularly than those who do not, in order to have a positive shift in lifestyle preferences for people.”

Dr AbdiShakur Abdulle, Associate Director of Public Health Research Centre, New York University, Abu Dhabi, who has collaborated on six Capstone Projects building up to this report told Gulf News in an exclusive interview that the Lancet report was the most detailed, incisive and exhaustive global health data ever published. “It is the first time that such a cross-country comparison has been done and it will help predict how far we are from the 2030 millennium goals.”

Commenting on the method of analysis, he said: “While the World Bank classified countries as developed, underdeveloped and developing using GDP as the main determinant, the new unit used is the Socio Demographic Index which means measuring the level of education, income and fertility — these have an impact on health. It is evident from the results that in the entire region, eschemic heart disease has become a major cause of death.

“The UAE has shown tremendous positive improvement in many areas. The results of the report are being reviewed by health ministers and those in charge of public health delivery systems. The data from the report is so complex that it will take a while to examine it, look at the areas of strength and areas of impact and address them,” he added.

GBD 2015 DATA FOR UAE

All data are for all ages and both genders unless otherwise specified.

Top five causes of death in 2015:

1. Ischemic heartdisease: causing 21.6% of total deaths

2. Motor vehicle road injuries: 9%

3. Haemorrhagic stroke: 6.4%

4. Diabetes: 3.8%

5. Ischemic stroke: 3.6%

See GBD Compare (Global Burden of Disease, Infections and Risks)

Top five causes of years lived with disability (YLDs) 2015:

1. Low back pain: 8.2% of total YLDs

2. Diabetes: 8.1%