The rich more likely to die from heart disease

The young men from Sudan, who humiliated Kenya’s Harambee Stars over the weekend, may live a year longer than the losers and most likely people from the two teams will die from different causes.

While the Kenyans are most likely to die from treatable disease such as diarrhoea or pneumonia, their Sudanese counterparts may die from heart or other chronic conditions.

The World Health Organisation’s 2011 report shows that the level of income in a country determines not only how the death is distributed, but what is more likely to kill you.

According to the report, heart conditions kill an estimated 57 million people yearly. Cardiovascular diseases kill more people each year than any other diseases.

In 2008, 7.3 million people died of heart disease, 6.2 million from stroke or another form of blood vessel-related disease.

Pneumonia and other respiratory diseases are the largest killers in the world’s poorest countries like Kenya, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Haiti.

In Kenya, 11 per cent of all deaths are caused by pneumonia and 8 per cent by diarrhoea.

Heart diseases, stroke, lung diseases, pneumonia, diarrhoea and Aids, in that order, are the leading causes of death in Sudan and other lower middle income countries like Jordan, Thailand, Angola, Swaziland, Yemen and Nigeria.

High income countries like the United States, Netherlands Sweden, the Emirates, Qatar, Japan, Libya, Brazil and South Africa and Germany are least affected by diarrhoea, Aids or maternal deaths.

Lifestyle diseases are, however, the top killers in these rich countries. Cancer, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and dementia, are also observed among the higher income groups in Kenya.

The report further says that a Kenyan male may expect only to live for about 58 years, while a Japanese has higher chances of living beyond 70 years.

Outlive husband

A Kenya woman may expect to outlive her husband by about four years while the Sudanese male can expect to live a year longer than the Kenya male, but is most likely to die at the same age with his wife.

In Kenya, children mostly die from pneumonia, although a preventive vaccine that was introduced recently may lower the prevalence of the disease.