Israel sees rise in stroke-related deaths
Central Bureau of Statistics report reveals decrease in deaths caused by diabetes, increase in mortality from stroke. Cancer remains most lethal disease
A total of 2,442 people died of a stroke in 2011 (6% of all death cases in Israel) – a slight increase from the previous year which saw 2,280 people die of a stroke (5.8% of all death cases).
Diabetes went down from the third place to the fifth place with a total of 2,190 deaths (5.4% of all death cases, compared to 5.8 the previous year).
"These figures point to an immediate need to prepare a national program for preventing strokes, which will reduce the number of deaths from the disease," says Pnina Rosenzweig, CEO of the Neeman Association for Stroke Survivors.
"Such a program should focus on three main issues: Awareness, location and prevention of people with a higher risk for a stroke, and establishing stroke care units in all hospitals in Israel."
Cancer remains the most lethal disease in Israel. A total of 10,288 people died of the disease in 2011, about a quarter of all death cases that year.
Among men, 23.7% of cancer deaths were the result of lung and respiratory system cancers, 12.2% dies of colorectal cancer, and 8.2% of pancreatic cancer. Among women, 22.2% of cancer deaths were the result of breast cancer, 13.3% of lung and respiratory system cancers, and 10.1% of colorectal cancer.
Heart diseases are in the second place and are responsible for 16.1% of deaths, a total of 6,558 cases. Stroke is in the third place.
These top three lethal diseases are followed by respiratory diseases (5.5%), diabetes (5.5%), infectious diseases (4.9%), external reasons including accidents, suicide, murder, etc (4.7%), kidney diseases (4%), pneumonia (2.2%) and high blood pressure (2.2%).
A total of 40,668 people died in Israel in 2011, 79% of them over the age of 65, 6% under the age of 45, and 1.4% babies up to the age of one year – a total of 588 infants.
An international comparison of mortality rates among men ranks Israel second among OECD countries in diabetes-related deaths, with 47 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This figure places Israel after Mexico (157.3) and before Portugal (40.1), South Korea (38.8) and Chile (36.3).
In cancer-related deaths Israel ranked second from the bottom with 219.3 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, after most OECD countries including Sweden (227.4), the United States (238), Britain (275.2) and France (299.8). Mexico ranked last with 138.1 cancer deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
In terms of death from stroke, Israeli men are in the third place from the bottom: In Israel 45 people of 100,000 inhabitants die of a stroke, more than the United States (44.1) and Canada (44.8), but less than Switzerland (45.7), France (46.6), Britain (68.2) and other countries.
Israeli women are in the third place from the bottom as well with 39.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, more than France (36.5) and Switzerland (36.9).
In terms of death from diabetes, Israeli women are in the second place with 34.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, while in Mexico 147.7 women per 100,000 die of diabetes.
