While the heart diseaseand the cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) remain the two main causes of death in the world, the OECD gives us a reason to be a little more optimistic for the future. In developed OECD countries, mortality from heart attacks fell by 40% between 1990 and 2011 on average. Another notable improvement, strokes are also down. They have been halved since 1990.
Cancer mortality is also slightly down, particularly that of stomach, colon, breast and cervical cancers in women, according to the 2013 Health Overview published by the OECD. In men, prostate and lung cancers are the most affected by this decline. Lung cancer is the leading cause of death among men.
Stroke: 8% of OECD deaths
OECD countries are not affected in the same way by this downward trend. For cardiovascular diseases, mortality is higher on average in the countries of central and eastern Europe but lower in France and Japan.
However, cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in the 33 OECD countries studied and represent 33% of all deaths recorded in 2011. Cancers are the second leading cause of death in these countries, according to the OECD.
For stroke, the fall in mortality is more significant in Spain, Estonia, Luxembourg and Portugal, but more discreet in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
Stroke deaths constitute 8% of all deaths in the OECD. A recent study published in The Lancet warned that strokes, usually detected in people over 65, affect a younger population.
