Life expectancy in India rises

Indians, on an average now live longer as compared with 1990 as life expectancy had increased by 6.9 years for men between 1990 and 2013 and 10.3 years for women during the same period, according to a study published today in the journal The Lancet.

Life expectancy had increased more for women than men with men now living up 64.16 years, while the corresponding figure for women was 68.48 years according to 2013 data. In 1990, the life expectancy was 57.25 years for men, and 59.19 years for women.

''Biologically, women are considered stronger and their survival tendencies are better than men. But sociologically, women tend to get treated far less than men in India,'' said Dr Nobhojit Roy, surgeon and public health specialist from BARC Hospital, Mumbai The Hindu reported.

Healthy life expectancy had however increased more slowly with diseases such as ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower respiratory infections, tuberculosis and neonatal disorders causing most of the loss of health in India.

The healthy life expectancy had been more for women than men in India and in the case of men, the healthy life expectancy had increased from 50.07 years in 1990 to 56.52 years in 2013 while for women it had risen from 50.15 years in 1990 to 59.11 years in 2013.

Ischaemic heart disease had emerged as the No1 killer in India, causing over 1.5 lakh deaths in 2013.

Now, a Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) study showed ischaemic heart disease (IHD) was also the number one cause of health loss with Indians losing almost 37 million years of healthy life in 2013.

The DALY, a measure of overall disease burden is expressed as number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. One DALY equaled one lost year of healthy life and DALYS were measured as the sum of years of life lost due to early death and years of healthy life lost due to disability.

This study was conducted by an international consortium of researchers working on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. The researchers included those from the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), and the study was led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

Dr Roy told The Indian Express said that IHD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower respiratory infections, tuberculosis and neonatal disorders caused the most health loss in India.