A new study, published in ‘The Lancet', has shown that over 95 percent of the world's population have problems with their health. The data analyzed from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) of 2013 elaborated that just one in 20 people across the globe (4.3 percent) had no health problems, and a third of the world's population (2.3 billion individuals) have more than five ailments.
The study found that between 1990 and 2013, the important causes of health loss have hardly changed. In both 1990 and 2013, low back pain, depression, iron-deficiency anemia, neck-pain, and age related hearing loss resulted in the major global health destruction.
In 2013, arthritis, back pain, depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug usage were accounted for nearly half of all the health problems of the population. Worldwide, the proportion of years of healthy life lost to illness had gone from 21 percent (1990) to 31 percent (2013).
The rates of disability were declined much more slowly than the death rates. In addition, according to the researchers, diabetes cases have jumped 43 percent over the last 23 years.
"Growth in the world's population, and increase in the proportion of adults, the number of people lived in sub-optimum health are set to rise rapidly in the coming decades. To address these kind of issues significant efforts are needed around the world, not just to keep people alive, but also to keep them healthy for a longer time in their old age," said, Dr VosDr Theo Vos, Professor of Global Health, Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington and a lead author of this study.
