WHO said: Global life expectancy has decreased sharply, falling back to the level of 2012

According to a global press release released late on May 24 by the World Health Organization (WHO), from 2019 to 2021, the global average life expectancy will decrease by 1.8 years and healthy life expectancy will decrease by up to 1.8 years. 1.5 years.

The Covid-19 pandemic is largely related but is not the leading cause of death but is a group of non-communicable diseases.

According to WHO, this decline has erased a decade of progress in life expectancy, pushing average life expectancy down to 71.4 years, healthy life expectancy down to 61.9 years, equivalent to 2012 levels.

Not only longevity but also measures to increase healthy lifespan are worth paying attention to - (Photo: AI).

The World Health Statistics 2024 report also highlights impacts being felt unevenly around the world.

Among them, the Americas and Southeast Asia endemic areas are the most severely affected , with life expectancy reduced by about 3 years and healthy life expectancy reduced by 2.5 years in the years 2019-2021.

In contrast, the Western Pacific endemic region was minimally affected during the first 2 years of the pandemic, with a reduction in life expectancy of less than 0.1 year and a reduction in healthy life expectancy of 0.2 years.

Epidemiological areas are inherently different from geographical areas. In particular, Vietnam is classified by WHO in the Western Pacific region, as the least affected region.

Life expectancy is the number of years simply lived, while healthy life expectancy is the number of years a person can live healthy and independent, that is, without limitations in the ability to perform daily activities due to illness or impairment. function.

Life expectancy in the past decade has decreased sharply, mainly in the period 2019-2021 when the Covid-19 pandemic occurred. This pandemic was the 3rd highest cause of death globally in 2020 and 2nd in 2021. Nearly 13 million people died during this period.

Latest estimates reveal that with the exception of Africa and the Western Pacific region, Covid-19 is among the top five causes of death elsewhere, notably becoming the leading cause of death in the Americas for both 2020-2021.

However, the leading cause of death in all regions is still non-communicable diseases (NCD).

The most prominent and fatal diseases in the NCD group include ischemic heart disease and stroke, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and diabetes.

NCDs were the largest cause of death before the pandemic , causing 74% of all deaths in 2019. Even during the pandemic, non-communicable diseases continued to account for 78% of non-communicable deaths Covid-19.

Previously, there have been a number of reports highlighting concerns about this, because during the Covid-19 pandemic, the management of non-communicable diseases - often chronic - may be neglected in the corner. individual and community levels.

In addition, the world faces a large and complex problem of the double burden of malnutrition, in which malnutrition coexists with overweight and obesity.

By 2022, more than 1 billion people age 5 and older will be living with obesity, while more than half a billion will be underweight. These nutrition-related problems also contribute to the increase in the number of cases and worsen the group of non-communicable diseases.

According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, these figures show that parallel with many advances, billions of people have better access to health services and are better protected against emergency situations. This report shows that progress can be fragile.

That is also one of the reasons why WHO is promoting a new pandemic agreement to strengthen global health security, while protecting long-term investments in health and promoting equity within and between countries. nation.