WORLD HEALTH STATISTICS 2019: MONITORING HEALTH FOR THE SDGs

About: 

• The World Health Statistics 2019 has been published by World Health Organization to coincide with World Health Day on 7 April. 
  
  
• It summarizes recent trends and levels in life expectancy and causes of death, and reports on the health and health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and associated targets. 
  
  
• The report this year focuses on primary health care as the foundation of universal health coverage. For the first time, this year, WHO’s Global Health Statistics have been disaggregated by sex. 
  
  

Key findings of report:

• Life-expectancy: 
  • Between 2000 and 2016, global life-expectancy at birth increased by 5.5 years, from 66.5 to 72.0 years.  
    
    
  • Healthy life expectancy at birth - the number of years one can expect to live in full health- increased from 58.5 years in 2000 to 63.3 years in 2016. 
    
    
  • Life expectancy remains strongly affected by income. In low-income countries, life expectancy is 18.1 years lower than in high-income countries. 
    
    
  
  
  
• Men and women comparison: 
  • Women outlive men everywhere in the world – particularly in wealthy countries. The reasons are some biological, some influenced by environmental and societal factors, and some impacted by availability of and uptake of health services. 
    
    
  • Where women can access health services, maternal deaths decrease, lengthening women’s life expectancy.  
    
    
  • Global suicide mortality rates were 75% higher in men than in women in 2016. 
    
    
  • Where men and women face the same disease, men often seek health care less than women. 
    
    
  • Men are much more likely to die from preventable and treatable noncommunicable diseases and road traffic accidents.