KUALA LUMPUR – Ischaemic heart disease remains as the leading cause of death in Malaysia after it recorded 18,515 deaths of 17 percent from the total medically certified deaths in the country.
It has been the principal cause of death in Malaysia for over two decades, recording an increment from 11.6% in 2000 to 17% in 2020.
Meanwhile, 12,707 (68.6%) males succumbed to heart disease, while 5,808 (31.4%) females died of the disease.
It is also the main cause of death across all main ethnics in Malaysia: Bumiputera (16.6%), Chinese (16.0%) and Indian (22.8%).
Chief Statistician, Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said that the unhealthy lifestyle and food intake are among the contributors to heart disease deaths.
This is supported by the statement from the Ministry of Health, saying that the country is not categorised as a healthy country based on the low health awareness aspect among the people and the high rate of heart disease and obesity.
The findings from the National Health & Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019 studies showed that hyperglycaemia, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia were the main risk factors to cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart disease.
Besides heart disease, pneumonia recorded the second highest death in the country with 11.4%, followed by cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) (8.3%), transport accidents (3.8%) malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lungs (2.9%).
Other than the five main causes of deaths, statistics also showed that cancer related deaths had spiked to 15.5% in 2020, from 11.6% in 2000.
Covid-19 death was the new cause of death reported in 2020. The outbreak recorded 471 deaths or 0.3% out of the 166,507 deaths.
Sabah recorded the highest Covid-19 deaths with 265 cases, meanwhile, Terengganu recorded the lowest number of deaths with only one case.
Heart disease death was also the main cause of deaths in 92 administration districts and the highest percentage was recorded in Kampar, Perak (33.3%), meanwhile pneumonia was the principal cause of death in 32 districts with the highest percentage in Pakan, Sarawak (19.9%). -MalaysiaGazette
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Heart disease still leading cause of death in Malaysia
