Economy 17 August 2020, 11:35am

Hungary tops EU ranking of death rates for preventable diseases

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In 2016, 1.5 million people aged less than 75 years died in the European Union, out of which two-thirds (1.0 million) could be considered as premature according to the Eurostat-OECD list of avoidable mortality.

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These deaths could have been avoided through effective public health and primary prevention interventions (preventable deaths) or through timely and effective health care interventions (treatable deaths), Eurostat reported.

In the EU, the most common causes of death from treatable diseases/conditions among people under 75 years of age were ischaemic heart diseases (standardised death rate of 18.9 per 100 000 inhabitants under 75 years), colorectal cancer (15.1), breast cancer (female only; 10.9), cerebrovascular diseases (10.0) and pneumonia (5.2). In 2016, these five causes accounted for 65% of all deaths from treatable diseases/conditions in the EU.

Collectively, the seven diseases/conditions shown in the chart below accounted for 72 % of all deaths from treatable diseases/conditions among people aged less than 75 years. As can be seen in the chart below, the standardised death rate for six of the major treatable diseases/conditions was lower in 2016 than in 2015, albeit only slightly lower in several cases; the exception was deaths from breast cancer for which a slight increase in the rate was observed.

In 19 of the 27 EU Member States, ischaemic heart disease recorded the highest standardised death rate in 2017 for people aged less than 75 years among these five leading causes of death from treatable diseases/conditions. In seven others - Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France (2016 data), Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal - the highest standardised death rate was for colorectal cancer, while in Bulgaria, the highest standardized death rate was for cerebrovascular diseases.

Main cause of preventable deaths: lung cancer

In the EU, lung cancer (37.1 per 100 000 inhabitants under 75 years), ischaemic heart diseases (18.9), alcohol-specific disorders and poisonings (11.7), cerebrovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (both 10.0) were the five most common causes of preventable death among people aged less than 75 years, accounting for 55% of all such deaths in 2016.

In 2017, among these five leading causes of preventable deaths, lung cancer had the highest standardised death rate for people aged less than 75 years in 20 of the 27 EU Member States. Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia recorded the highest rate of preventable deaths for ischaemic heart disease, while Estonia and Finland registered the highest rate for alcohol-specific disorders and poisonings. Bulgaria had the highest rate of preventable deaths for cerebrovascular diseases.

Hungary fared the worst in the entire EU as far as the standardised death rate for preventable diseases/conditions among persons under the age of 75.