Twenty four risk factors responsible for nearly half of annual deaths, says WHO

doi:10.1136/bmj.b4439

Published 28 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4439
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4439

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Twenty four risk factors responsible for nearly half of annual deaths, says WHO

John Zarocostas

¹ Geneva

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Twenty four risk factors are responsible for 44% of the estimated60 million global deaths that occur each year and cause 34%of the loss of healthy life years worldwide, says a World HealthOrganization report.

The five leading global risks for mortality are high blood pressure,which is responsible for 12.8% of all deaths globally; tobaccouse (8.7%); high blood glucose (5.8%); physical inactivity (5.5%),and overweight and obesity (5%), it says.

Other key global risk factors among the top 10 causes of deathinclude high cholesterol (4.5%), unsafe sex (4%), alcohol use(3.8%), childhood underweight (3.8%), and indoor smoke fromsolid fuels (3.3%).

The report concludes that these leading risks are responsiblefor raising the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease,diabetes, and cancers.

For instance, 57% of cardiovascular deaths, it says, can betraced back to three risk factors—high blood pressure,high body mass index, . . . [Full text of this article]

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