COVID-19 among top causes of death in Philippines in 2020; fatal self-harm up 57%

Deaths recorded in the country in 2020 —613,035 in total —logged higher than the five year average of 586,630 from 2015 to 2019, preliminary data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

“Most of the ten leading causes of death already exceed their averages in the last five years,” the PSA said in an accompanying statement.

Government data also showed a significant climb in "self-harm" death last year, from 2,810 cases in 2019 to 4,420 in 2020.  Intentional self-harm was the 25th leading cause of death in 2020, up from rank 31 the previous year.

COVID-19

The PSA said 30,140 or 4.9 percent of the total registered deaths were due to COVID-19, triple the Department of Health’s (DOH) tally of 9,244 COVID-19 deaths last year.

“Data from PSA are based on the descriptions written on the medical certificate portion of all death certificates received which were certified by the Local Health Officers, while data from the DOH were collected through a surveillance system,” the PSA said.

The PSA also clarified that COVID-19 deaths in the data refer to both confirmed and probable cases as of registration, while DOH data only includes confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Broken down, the PSA said there were 20,840 deaths tagged as probable COVID-19 cases, while 9,300 were confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Most of the COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the National Capital Region (NCR), particularly in Quezon City, with 2,637.

Metro Manila was followed by Calabarzon with 7,001; Central Luzon with 2,692; Central Visayas with 2,362; and Western Visayas with 1,138.

Causes of death

Ischemic heart diseases remained the top cause of death with 105,114; followed by neoplasms with 66,179; cerebrovascular diseases with 64,104; diabetes mellitus with 39,723; and pneumonia with 34,251.

Rounding up the top 10 are hypertensive diseases with 31,610; other heart diseases with 20,575; chronic lower respiratory infections with 20,553;  remainder of diseases of the genitourinary system with 18,483; and respiratory tuberculosis with 18,410.

Self-harm

Experts earlier said the pandemic is likely to have a “profound and pervasive impact” on global mental health, as the world struggles to cope with isolated living and anxiety spikes.

A survey conducted by the OCTA Research Group in January found that some 28 percent of Filipinos experienced emotional problems like stress or extreme sadness due to the pandemic.

The country has a 24/7 suicide prevention hotline called Hopeline, which may be reached at (02) 804-4673; 0917-5584673. —LDF, GMA News