Heart attack still PHL’s top killer, diabetes deaths on the rise — DOH

Heart attack, stroke and cancer remain three of the top killers of Filipinos, but diabetes is slowly catching up.

Data culled by GMA News Research from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the Department of Health (DOH) revealed that that almost 1.5 million Filipinos died of heart diseases from 2000 to 2015.

In 2015, there were 135 deaths from heart diseases per 100,000 population. Heart diseases include acute myocardial infarction or heart attack, angina, hypertensive heart diseases and chronic ischemic heart diseases.

During the same period, more than 940,000 Filipinos died from vascular system diseases or abnormal conditions of arteries and veins. Stroke and aneurysm are categorized as vascular diseases.

A total of 733,702 Filipinos died of malignant neoplasms or cancers from 2000 to 2015. 

Pneumonia claimed the lives of 653,596 individuals for the same five-year period, while accidents killed 566,071 individuals.

Among the leading causes of deaths, the number of deaths from diabetes had the biggest increase from 2000 to 2015. Deaths from diabetes more than tripled: from 10,747 in 2000 to 34,050 deaths in 2015.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths from tuberculosis went down. There were 27,557 in 2000 and 26,047 in 2015.

"Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period" or deaths of fetuses and newborn infants dropped out of the Top 10 beginning 2014. It was among the 10 leading causes of death from 2000 to 2013.

Latest PSA data, which was released only in February this year, noted that an average of 1,591 persons died daily in 2016-equivalent to 66 deaths per hour or one per minute.

A total of 582,183 Filipinos died in 2016. PSA said the number of deaths from 2006 to 2016 had an increasing trend, although it noted that the increase may have been due to a slight increase in registration of deaths.

The data on deaths were obtained from death certificates registered at the city and municipal registrars throughout the country. — LDF, GMA News