The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released the World Health Statistics 2015.

Key Messages:

• Life expectancy at birth has increased 6 years for both men and women since 1990.

Men: 62 (1990) to 68 (2013)    Women: 67 (1990) to 73 (2013)

• Two-thirds of deaths worldwide are due to noncommunicable diseases.

 Age Standardized Mortality Rates by cause:
Communicable diseases: 178/100,000 population                                                             Non-Communicable diseases: 539/100,000 population                                                     Injuries: 73/100,000 population    

• In some countries, more than one-third (33%) of births are delivered by caesarean section: Uruguay 40%; Mexico 46%; Iran 48%; Cyprus 52%; Brazil and Dominican Republic 56% (this is a partial list of countries with >33% LSCS Rate)
• In low- and middle-income countries, only two-thirds of pregnant women with HIV receive antiretrovirals to prevent transmission to their baby.
• Over one-third of adult men smoke tobacco.
• Only 1 in 3 African children with suspected pneumonia receives antibiotics.
• 15% of women worldwide are obese.
• The median age of people living in low-income countries is 20 years, while it is 40 years in high-income countries.
• One quarter (25%) of men have raised blood pressure.
• In some countries, less than 5% of total government expenditure is on health.

Useful Links:

Link to the WHO Press release:

http://who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/world-health-statistics-2015/en/

Link to the World Health Statistics 2015 (entire document):

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/170250/1/9789240694439_eng.pdf?ua=1&ua=1

Link to the World Health Statistics page (to download each section separately):

http://who.int/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/2015/en/