WHO Identifies Five Major Causes Of

Premature Death
Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Hypertension; Sexual Health / STDs; Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 29 Oct 2009 - 4:00 PDT
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Targeting the five major causes of premature death could increase global life expectancy by
almost five years, the WHO said Tuesday, Reuters reports. According to a WHO's Global Health
Risks report, which looked at 24 major health risks, "poor childhood nutrition, unsafe sex,
alcohol, bad sanitation and hygiene, and high blood pressure are to blame for around a quarter of
the 60 million premature deaths around the world each year," the news service writes.
"The poorest countries still face a high and concentrated burden from poverty, undernutrition,
unsafe sex, unsafe water and sanitation," the report said. "The report warned that although some
major health risk factors, such as smoking, obesity and being overweight, were usually
associated with high-income countries, more than three-quarters of the total global burden of
diseases they cause now occurs in poor and developing countries," Reuters writes (Kelland,
10/27).
In addition, "Colin Mathers [author of the Global Health Risks report, explained]
underdeveloped countries are less able to treat chronic diseases among a population that is now
living longer," ABC News reports (Macey, 10/28).
"Understanding the relative importance of health risk factors helps governments to figure out
which health policies they want to pursue," Mathers said, U.N. News Centre reports. "Countries
can combine this type of evidence along with information about policies and their costs to decide
how to set their health agenda" (10/27).
VOA News features additional analysis of the report by WHO Technical Officer Gretchen
Stevens (Schlein, 10/27). Reuters includes a factbox of the leading causes of premature death
worldwide (10/27). WA Today examines concern among health experts that deaths from obesity
and tobacco use are outpacing deaths from hunger and infectious disease (Rose, 10/27).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J.
Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report,
search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.