Anwar Rafay, a medical specialist and assistant professor in epidemiology and biostatistics at Contech School of Public Health and a co-author of the study, as saying: “It’s encouraging to see life expectancy for people in Pakistan steadily climbing but healthy life expectancy needs to keep pace if we are going to live both long and healthy lives. These data give us a big-picture view of Pakistani health scenario to address the causes of health loss that are having the most severe impact.”
For most countries, changes in healthy life expectancy for males and females between 1990 and 2013 were significant and positive, but in dozens of countries, including Botswana, Belize, and Syria, healthy life expectancy in 2013 was not significantly higher than in 1990.
“Thanks to marked declines in death and illness caused by HIV/AIDS and malaria in the past decade and significant advances made in addressing communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional disorders, health has improved significantly around the world,” the press release adds. According to the study, global life expectancy at birth for both sexes rose by 6.2 years (from 65.3 in 1990 to 71.5 in 2013), while healthy life expectancy at birth rose by 5.4 years (from 56.9 in 1990 to 62.3 in 2013).
The study’s researchers use disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to compare the health of different populations and health conditions across time. One DALY equals one lost year of healthy life and is measured by the sum of years of life lost and years lived with disability.
In Pakistan, the leading causes of health loss, as measured by DALYs, in 2013 were lower respiratory infections, neonatal encephalopathy, diarrheal diseases, ischemic heart disease, neonatal preterm birth complications, neonatal sepsis, stroke, meningitis, road injuries, and congenital abnormalities. Some of these conditions, including lung cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, were not among the leading causes of health loss globally.
The study also examines the role that socio-demographic status – a combination of per capita income, population age, fertility rates, and average years of schooling – plays in determining health loss. Researchers’ findings underscore that this accounts for more than half of the differences seen across countries and over time for certain leading causes of DALYs, including maternal and neonatal disorders. But the study notes that socio-demographic status is much less responsible for the variation seen for ailments including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
IHME director Dr. Christopher Murray believes that “Factors including income and education have an important impact on health but don’t tell the full story. Looking at healthy life expectancy and health loss at the country level can help guide policies to ensure that people everywhere can have long and healthy lives, no matter where they live.”