Ischaemic heart diseases remain as principal causes of death in Malaysia

 

Ischaemic heart diseases remained as the principal causes of death in Malaysia with 16,325 deaths or 15.0 per cent of total medically certified deaths, said chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

He said there were 11,330 (69.4 percent) deaths caused by Ischaemic heart diseases involving males, while 4,995 (31.6 percent) were females in 2019.

“Ischaemic heart diseases were the principal causes of death for all major ethnic groups in Malaysia where Bumiputera (14.5 percent), Chinese (14.0 percent) and Indians (20.4 percent),” he said in a statement in conjunction with the release of Report of Statistics on Causes of Death, Malaysia, 2020 today.

The report presents the statistics on causes of death in Malaysia for 2019 by demographic characteristics at national, state and administrative district.

The statistics used as inputs for the formulation of policies and planning of programmes related to health as well as a useful source of reference for researchers and academia.

Globally, Mohd Uzir said Ischaemic heart diseases also recorded as the principal causes of death for developed countries such as Australia (11.1 percent) and the USA (23.1 percent).

“Unhealthy lifestyle and diet are among the factors contributing to death caused by Ischaemic heart diseases today,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said pneumonia was the second highest causes of death with 12.2 per cent followed by cerebrovascular diseases (8.0 percent), transport accidents (3.8 percent) and malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung (2.4 percent).

Ischaemic heart diseases were the principal causes of death in 78 administrative districts out of 160 districts and the highest percentage was recorded in Sik (27.1 percent), he said.

Pneumonia was the principal causes of death in 51 administrative districts with the highest percentage recorded by Kota Setar (19.5 percent).

Overall, Mohd Uzir said there were 173,746 deaths recorded in 2019 of which 109,164 (62.8 percent) were medically certified deaths and 64,582 (37.2 percent) non-medically certified deaths.

- Bernama