Probability of Demise: Identifying Most Common Causes of Death for Individuals
In the global landscape, the causes of death vary considerably, with heart disease and cancer leading the pack as the top two causes of mortality.
Heart disease, also known as cardiovascular disease, is the single largest cause of death worldwide. According to recent estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), heart disease accounted for about 32% of all deaths globally in 2015, with 17.9 million deaths reported [2]. This disease primarily affects older adults and is a significant cause of mortality, particularly in developed countries.
Cancer ranks as the second leading cause of death globally, accounting for roughly 21% of deaths in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries around 2021 [1]. Like heart disease, cancer mortality is on the rise due to aging populations and lifestyle changes.
Road accidents and other injury-related causes are less frequent globally but still major causes of death, particularly in younger populations and low/middle-income countries. While their share is smaller compared to heart disease and cancer, they form part of the "other causes" category, which combined represent about 21% of deaths in OECD data [1].
Infectious diseases such as tuberculosis remain significant in certain regions, with about 1.25 million TB deaths estimated in 2023, showing a decline but still a notable cause in the global infectious disease burden [3].
The COVID-19 pandemic added to the mortality burden, causing approximately 7% of deaths in OECD countries during its peak years [1].
The relative odds of dying from these causes on a global scale show heart disease as the highest, followed by cancer, then road accidents and other less common causes including infectious diseases like TB. The exact risks vary by region, age, and socioeconomic factors, but heart disease and cancer dominate as top causes worldwide [1][2][4].
In terms of specific types of cancer, lung, bronchial, colon, and breast cancer are the most common forms of cancer that resulted in death.
While the odds of dying from cardiovascular diseases are 3 to 1, the odds of dying from other causes such as road accidents, drowning, falling from a ladder, or food poisoning are considerably lower, ranging from 10 to 1 to 685,000 to 1.
References:
[1] Our World in Data. (2021). Global deaths by cause. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-by-cause
[2] World Health Organization. (2016). Global Health Estimates. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimates/en/
[3] World Health Organization. (2023). Global Tuberculosis Report 2023. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240028756
[4] World Health Organization. (2019). Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases 2019. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240016086
- In contrast to the extensive coverage of heart disease and cancer, discussion on the global landscape of casinos, blogging, science, medical-conditions, and health-and-wellness tend to be less prevalent, with only general-news sites providing occasional updates.
- Despite the comparative scarcity of information, mental-health, a critical aspect of health-and-wellness, has gained increasing attention recently due to its impact on overall wellbeing.
- Incidents such as car-accidents, respiratory-conditions, and cancer are occasionally addressed in medical blogs, but their coverage is often outnumbered by posts about heart disease, lifestyle changes, and alternative treatments.
- It's interesting to note that, just like road accidents, drowning, or falling from a ladder belong to the less common causes of death due to accidental reasons,but blogging, science, and casino-related topics also fall into the category of less common topics in global health discussions.
- Referencing the World Health Organization and Our World in Data reports, we can only find statistics about deaths caused by heart disease, cancer, road accidents, and infectious diseases like TB, but there is no available data on the mortality rates of other topics such as blogging, science, or mental health.
