New research suggests that the world population is living longer – an average of six years longer – as improvements in disease fighting pushed the life expectancy rate higher.
The results, measured from 1990 to 2013, showed that global life expectancy increased by 5.8 years for men and 6.6 years for women, according to conclusions of the Global Burden of Disease Study published in The Lancet.
The study emphasizes that the rise in life expectancy in high-income regions was due to a decrease in the death rate for most cancers, which fell 15 percent, as well as cardiovascular diseases, which declined by 22 percent.
Low-income countries saw substantial drops in death rates for diarrhea, lower respiratory tract infections and neonatal disorders, the study found.
“The progress we are seeing against a variety of illnesses and injuries is good, even remarkable, but we can and must do even better,” said the lead author of the study, Dr. Christopher Murray of the University of Washington. “The huge increase in collective action and funding given to the major infectious diseases such as diarrhea, measles, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria has had a real impact,” Murray said.
The study also notes that some major chronic diseases have been largely neglected but are currently rising in importance, including drug disorders, liver cirrhosis, diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
The number of annual deaths from HIV/AIDS rose from 2.07 million in 1990 to 2.63 million in 2013, the equivalent of a 344 percent increase in lost life years. That increase made southern sub-Saharan Africa the only world region to experience a decline in life expectancy.
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