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The Top 5 Leading Causes of Disease for Females 45 to 59
| Cause of Disease | Women Afflicted | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unipolar Depressive Disorders | 6,774,214 |
| 2 | Ischaemic Heart Disease | 5,631,271 |
| 3 | Cerebrovascular Disease | 5,467,761 |
| 4 | Hearing-loss Adult Onset | 3,659,188 |
| 5 | Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases | 2,994,762 |
Special Report
- Depressive disorders, as a single diagnostic category, are the leading cause of disability worldwide. Depression without periods of elation or mania is sometimes referred to as unipolar depression because a person's mood remains on one pole. The World Health Organization's "Global Burden of Disease" study found that that mental illness, including suicide, accounts for over 15 percent of the burden of disease in established market economies, such as in Western countries like Canada and The United States. This is more than the disease burden caused by all cancers together.
- Heart disease and stroke are already leading causes of death in women in developed countries and will be the leading cause of death in women in poor countries by 2020. The female death rate from heart disease is almost eighteen times higher than from breast cancer and six times more than HIV/AIDS related deaths. In developing countries, half of all deaths of women over 50 are due to heart disease and stroke.
- Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is damage to the blood vessels in the brain, resulting in a stroke. Blood vessels can become blocked because of fat deposits, or a wandering blood clot, which can block the flow of blood to a part of the brain. Sometimes, the blood vessels may leak, break, or burst, resulting in a hemorrhagic stroke. CVD is the most disabling of all neurological diseases. Approximately 50% of survivors have a residual neurological deficit and greater than 25% require chronic care. An estimated 17 million people die of CVDs, particularly heart attacks and strokes, every year. A substantial number of these deaths can be attributed to tobacco smoking, which increases the risk of dying from coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease 2–3 fold. People with diabetes are also at higher risk of cerebrovascular disease.
- Excessive noise is a global occupational health hazard with considerable social and physiological impacts. Worldwide, 16% of the disabling hearing loss in adults (over 4 million DALYs) is attributed to occupational noise, ranging from 7% to 21%. The effects of this exposure to occupational noise are larger for males than females in all regions with the highest rates being in the developing regions of the world. Occupational noise is a significant cause of adult-onset hearing loss. The majority of this noise-induced hearing loss burden can be minimized by the use of engineering controls to reduce the generation of noise at its source.
- The main risk factor in the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is smoking. Approximately 15% of all chronic smokers will develop the disease. COPD can also be caused by prolonged exposure to certain dusty, smokey environments and for women in developing countries exposure is particularly high because of cooking and heating with solid fuels such as dung, wood, crop waste or coal which leads to indoor air pollution. Women exposed to indoor smoke are three times as likely to suffer from COPD, such as chronic bronchitis, than women who cook and heat with electricity, gas and other cleaner fuels.
Tags:
Health Statistics, Leading Causes of Disease
Sources: WHO report: Injury, a Leading Cause of the Global Burden of Disease 2000.
List Notes: All Statistics are for the year 2000. This WHO study combines mortality and health data from national vital registration systems with information obtained from surveys, censuses,epidemiological studies and health service data.
Sources: WHO report: Injury, a Leading Cause of the Global Burden of Disease 2000.
List Notes: All Statistics are for the year 2000. This WHO study combines mortality and health data from national vital registration systems with information obtained from surveys, censuses,epidemiological studies and health service data.
