WHO Reports on Top 10 Health Problems Worldwide

WHO Reports on Top 10 Health Problems Worldwide

GENEVA, Switzerland--In The World Health Report2002--Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life, the World Health Organization(WHO) reported that life expectancy worldwide could be increased by five to 10years if governments and individuals made efforts against the major health risksin each region.

WHO reported that the top 10 preventable health risks on a global scale are:childhood and maternal weight issues; unsafe sex; high blood pressure; tobacco;alcohol; unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene; high cholesterol; indoor smokefrom solid fuels; iron deficiency; and carrying too much weight. These problemsaccounted for about 40 percent of the 56 million annual deaths worldwide.

WHO called the contrast between the causes of death between rich and poorpeople "shocking." For example, 170 million children in poor countriesare underweight, mainly from lack of food, while more than 1 billion adultsworldwide, in middle- and high-income countries alike, are overweight or obese.In fact, approximately 500,000 people in North America and Western Europe diefrom overweight/obesity-related diseases every year.

WHO concluded that unless action is taken to better prevent these problems,by 2020 there will be 9 million deaths caused by tobacco per year, compared toalmost 5 million now, and 5 million deaths per year will be attributed to beingoverweight and obese compared to 3 million now. WHO reported that a healthy lifeexpectancy could increase by as much as 16-plus years in parts of Africa, whereit is as low as 37 years in regions such as Malawi. Even in the richerdeveloping countries, such as Europe, the United States, Australia, New Zealandand Japan, life expectancy could increase by about five years.

"Globally, we need to achieve a much better balance between preventingdisease and merely treating its consequences," says Christopher Murray,M.D., Ph.D., executive director of WHO's Global Programme on Evidence for HealthPolicy and overall director of World Health Report 2002. "This can onlycome about with concerted action to identify and reduce major risks tohealth."

WHO built a framework for decreasing the risk factors for these top 10conditions, such as treating underweight/malnourished children with vitamin A,zinc and iron. The rest of the framework can be found at www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/pr84/en.