Cancer continues to be the leading cause of death in Israel followed by heart disease, according to the report.
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMANCancer (Illustrative)(photo credit: PIXABAY)
Diabetes is among the top three causes of death in Israel, unlike in most of the Western world, and is getting worse.A new report, “Leading causes of death, 2000-2016,” published by the Health Information Division of the Health Ministry, found that diabetes has now become the third-highest killer in Israel (up from No. 4).It is also a much more prominent cause of death in Israel than in other countries. It is No. 9 in the EU-15 and No. 8 in the US and Canada.Diabetes was the fourth cause of death for most of the period of 2000 to 2016 and only became No. 3 in recent years.The EU-15 are Austria, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Greece, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Finland, France and Sweden.Cancer continues to be the leading cause of death in Israel followed by heart disease, according to the report.These causes of death are consistent and comparable to the top causes of death in Europe, Canada and the United States. In America, however, heart disease is No. 1 and cancer is No. 2.In contrast, whereas dementia is a leading cause of death in those countries and is listed in the top 10 (EU-15: 4, US: 6; Canada: 3), it does not appear on the list of leading causes of death in Israel.The report, which follows the methodology of the US publications on leading causes of death, found that Israel’s mortality rate decreased by 27% between 2000 and 2016, according to the report.The report which also found that over the decade, the rates of death from most leading causes have been decreasing.
However, there was an increase in mortality rates for 2014 to 2016 compared 2004 to 2006 for some causes. The highest increase was for dementia, which increased over threefold for males and 2.5-fold for females.Other high increases were for mortality due to septicemia (77% for males and 42% for females) and Alzheimer’s disease (22% for males, 37% for females). Septicemia is blood poisoning, especially that caused by bacteria or their toxins.Israel’s mortality rate is low compared to the US and most European countries. In 2015, the rate in Israel was 896 per 100,000 people. This was higher only than France (828), Switzerland (857) Spain (864), Canada (869.5), Luxembourg (869) and Italy (886). When it comes to males, Israel is ranked even better, with the fourth lowest mortality rate.
