The countries with the highest death rates from diseases such as cancer and heart disease have been revealed, and the United States is in the top ten.
The researchers analyzed data on mortality rates from six common noncommunicable diseases (conditions not caused by infection and that cannot be transmitted from person to person) in 38 mostly high-income countries.
The diseases investigated were cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, liver disease and kidney disease. The team assigned each country a mortality score out of 10, with one being the best and 10 being the worst, for each disease and overall.
Turkey ranked first with the highest overall mortality score, the researchers found, and the United States ranked ninth overall, surpassing the United Kingdom and seemingly less developed nations such as Colombia and Costa Rica. The data showed that the UK ranked 24th, while Australia fared even better at 37th.
The United States’ poor standing was attributed to a combination of high obesity rates (which increase the risk of multiple diseases) and previously higher smoking rates.
The researchers also looked at mortality scores within the U.S. and found that Mississippi, Arkansas, and West Virginia had the highest rates and Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York had the lowest mortality rates.
The above shows the mortality score of the 10 worst OECD countries. The score was calculated by averaging the mortality rate of six non-communicable diseases, including heart disease and cancer.
This map shows the mortality score by country in the OECD. He revealed that Turkey ranked first, followed by Hungary, the Slovak Republic and Mexico.
The research was carried out by life insurance experts at William Russell earlier this year using the most up-to-date figures from the World Health Organization and the World Bank.
The figures were converted to deaths per 100,000 people to allow comparison between countries.
Countries were then ranked according to their mortality rates for each disease, and the scores were then averaged to give an overall figure of 10.
All countries included in the analysis are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a forum of 37 countries with market economies founded in 1961.
Of the countries studied, Turkey had the highest mortality score of 8.34 out of 10 for the selected diseases, driven by its high mortality rate from kidney disease, stroke and lung disease.
Completing the top five are Hungary (8.29), the Slovak Republic (7.57), Mexico (7.39) and Poland (7.25).
But the United States ranked ninth overall, which researchers attributed to the fact that it had the third highest rate of deaths from lung diseases and the sixth highest from kidney conditions.
The high rate of lung disease was linked to higher rates of smoking in some parts of the country and could also be due to rising rates of vaping, which is being linked to serious lung conditions.
Studies suggest Being from a lower economic background also increases the risk of lung disease, which may be linked to poorer indoor air quality and exposure to hazardous particles in certain professions such as construction and manufacturing.
A higher rate of kidney problems (medically called nephrosis) was linked to higher rates of obesity in patients, which can cause diabetes that damages the kidneys, increasing the risk that they will stop working. There’s also evidence suggesting Increased opioid use increases the risk of death from kidney disease.
The above shows the mortality score by US state for each communicable disease studied. Mississippi ranked first among all US states.
In the United States, Mississippi, Arkansas and West Virginia had the highest mortality scores. In contrast, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York had the lowest levels.
However, the United States had lower mortality scores in deaths from cancer (where it ranked 27th) and from stroke (where it ranked 21st).
The United Kingdom surpassed the United States in every aspect except cancer death rates, where it ranked 19th overall.
The country with the lowest mortality rate score was Switzerland with 2.03. They were followed by Australia (2.57), Israel (2.7), Spain (2.75) and France (2.79).
Continuing their analysis, the researchers looked at death rates for the same six diseases in all 50 US states based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In general, they found that states in the southern region of the US tended to have higher mortality rates from the diseases studied than their northern counterparts.
This was likely due to higher rates of obesity and diabetes in the South, as well as a more fragile health system and lower rates of health insurance.
Mississippi, which had the highest mortality score of 9.39, is one of 10 states that has not yet expanded Medicaid.
Arkansas came in second with a score of 9.05, which researchers linked to the fact that the state had the highest lung disease mortality rate in the country, likely due to higher smoking rates.
West Virginia earned an overall score of 8.78, ranking third, but first in the U.S. for its cancer and coronary heart disease mortality rate. Its rate of lung disease ranked third overall.
With the lowest mortality score was Massachusetts at just 1.6. They were followed by Connecticut (1.7), New York (1.8), Minnesota (1.91) and New Jersey (1.97).
Nationwide, data shows that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, behind nearly 700,000 deaths each year.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death, behind 605,000 deaths, while stroke is the fifth leading cause, behind 162,000 deaths, and lower respiratory tract diseases are sixth, behind 142,000.
Liver disease is the ninth cause of death. responsible for 56,585 deaths and kidney diseases occupy tenth place, behind 54,358 deaths per year.
