The nation’s average life expectancy would rise by 3.32 years from 79.84 if cancer were excluded, demonstrating how the disease affects the expected lifespan in Taiwan by a significant margin, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
The ministry cited Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics on the top 10 causes of death last year as the basis for its calculation.
The interior ministry said that it compared the average lifespan of those with specific causes of death against the average lifespan of people with normal health — the greater the difference, the more severe the effect of the disease has on life expectancy.
Photo: CNA
Malignant tumors have led the top 10 causes of death for more than 41 years, with the average mortality rate of those with malignant tumors at 51,927, or 24.9 percent of the total national mortality rate, it said.
If malignant tumors could be removed, life expectancy could increase to 83.16 years, it said.
The discrepancy in lifespan for those with malignant tumors and those with average health dropped from 4.08 years in 2012 to 3.32 years last year, it added.
Heart disease ranked second in the top 10 causes of death last year, with life expectancy rising by 1.37 years if it were eradicated, the interior ministry said.
The COVID-19 pandemic ranked third and if the disease could be removed entirely, life expectancy could rise to 80.64 years, or an increase of 0.8 years.
Men are more prone to die from malignant tumors, heart disease, COVID-19, pneumonia, cerebrovascular diseases, accidents and chronic lower respiratory diseases, data showed.
Conversely, women are more likely to die from diabetes, hypertension and nephrotic syndromes, such as nephritis or nephrosis, the data showed.
In related news, Legislative Yuan Foundation of Health and Welfare director Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴) said that the group had raised funds for 165 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and donated them to cities and counties nationwide in response to the Ministry of Health and Welfare changing the regulations in May.
Heart disease was the second-most common cause of death last year, foundation secretary-general Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said, adding that knowing how to operate an AED or conduct CPR would allow individuals to save people or stabilize their condition until paramedics arrive.
Su said she was glad that the health ministry’s amended regulations include junior-high schools and police stations as locations that must have an AED.
All junior-high schools have at least one AED, but there are 614 police stations nationwide lacking such devices, Wu said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its