News

Poor diet is responsible for more deaths globally than tobacco, high blood pressure, or any other health risk, according to a new scientific study. Consuming low amounts of healthy foods, such as whole grains, and too much unhealthy foods, including sweetened beverages, account for one in every five deaths globally.

Democratic rule, enforced by regular free and fair elections, appears to make an important contribution to adult health by increasing government spending on health and potentially reducing deaths from several non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and transport injuries. Conversely, autocracies that escape this general scrutiny, and do not have the same external pressures or support from global health donors to tackle NCDs and injuries, may have less incentive to finance their prevention and treatment, and seem to underperform as a result.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s new NHS Long Term Plan, a 10-year blueprint for health services, relies substantially on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study to frame priorities for tackling premature death and disability.

Q&A with Professor Valery Feigin, Director of the National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences, and Professor of Epidemiology & Neurology at AUT University, New Zealand

Two IHME papers are featured in the “Altmetric 100” for 2018, the annual listing by the UK-based data science firm of research that most captured the public’s interest.

Neurology experts from around the world will convene in Auckland, New Zealand, for a conference on “brain health,” examining what one calls “the greatest challenge of societies in the 21st century.” Among the neurological disorders to be discussed at the Brain Summit are stroke, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and migraine and other headaches. The topics are covered in a new series of 11 papers on neurological disorders in The Lancet Neurology. As part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), the studies assess death and disability from 15 neurological disorders between 1990 and 2016 in 195 countries and territories by age and by sex. It is the most extensive study ever conducted on neurological disorders.

Rates of premature mortality are two times higher in the most deprived areas of England (Blackpool), compared to the most affluent (Wokingham), according to a new comprehensive analysis of health at a local, national, and regional level across the UK.

Dr. Cynthia Maung, a Burmese physician and director of a clinic in Thailand, will be awarded $100,000 for using health data to improve the lives of refugees, migrant workers, and internally displaced people along the Burmese-Thai border.

New high-resolution maps pinpoint areas across Africa with concentrations of child deaths from diarrhea and show uneven progress over 15 years to mitigate the problem. The study, covering 2000 to 2015, maps the entire African continent in 5x5 square kilometer units and was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

СИЭТТЛ – Продолжительность жизни в России между 1994 и 2016 годами увеличилась более чем на 7 лет, в то время как смертность российских детей в возрастной группе младше 5 лет снизились почти на 60%, по данным самого масштабного исследования, когда-либо проводившегося в области здоровья населения мира.

A new scientific study concludes there is no safe level of drinking alcohol. The study, published today in the international medical journal The Lancet, shows that in 2016, nearly 3 million deaths globally were attributed to alcohol use, including 12 percent of deaths in males between the ages of 15 and 49.