Abstract
INTRODUCTION: 'Avoidable' mortality is used as an indicator of the effectiveness of healthcare systems. It is based on the concept that premature deaths from certain causes ideally should not occur in the presence of timely and effective medical and public health interventions. This poster presents an overview of avoidable deaths that occurred in Malaysia in the year 2017. METHODS: All deaths registered in 2017-which occurred before age 75-were classified using a modified selection of 'avoidable' causes based on previously published lists, which had been revised in keeping with local disease patterns and burden. 'Avoidable' deaths are further classed as 'amenable' (potentially avoided through the efforts of healthcare services), preventable (potentially avoided through public health programs or policies), or both. RESULTS: In 2017, more than half (53.0%) of all deaths were from causes considered avoidable. Males were more likely to die from an avoidable cause-62.8% of all male deaths were considered avoidable, compared to 45.9% of all female deaths. Deaths from cardiovascular and circulatory diseases were the leading cause of avoidable deaths (39.2%) followed by neoplasms (15.1%), unintentional injuries (15.1%), and infectious diseases (13.1%). DISCUSSION: There are obvious limitations to using avoidable mortality to measure how effective our healthcare system is; for example, advances in education, road safety and housing also have a big impact on overall levels of health. Still, observing avoidable mortality trends over time and across the socioeconomic spectrum may provide new insights into inequalities in access to care within populations in Malaysia.
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@proceedings{APCPH-2019-186,
title = {How Many Deaths Were 'Avoidable' In 2017?},
author = {LeeAnn Tan and MB BCh BAO and Shubash Shander Ganapathy and Mohamad Fuad Mohamad Anuar and Nazirah Alias and Azahadi Omar},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-07-22},
urldate = {2019-07-22},
journal = {6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Public Health 2019 Proceedings},
issue = {6},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: 'Avoidable' mortality is used as an indicator of the effectiveness of healthcare systems. It is based on the concept that premature deaths from certain causes ideally should not occur in the presence of timely and effective medical and public health interventions. This poster presents an overview of avoidable deaths that occurred in Malaysia in the year 2017. METHODS: All deaths registered in 2017-which occurred before age 75-were classified using a modified selection of 'avoidable' causes based on previously published lists, which had been revised in keeping with local disease patterns and burden. 'Avoidable' deaths are further classed as 'amenable' (potentially avoided through the efforts of healthcare services), preventable (potentially avoided through public health programs or policies), or both. RESULTS: In 2017, more than half (53.0%) of all deaths were from causes considered avoidable. Males were more likely to die from an avoidable cause-62.8% of all male deaths were considered avoidable, compared to 45.9% of all female deaths. Deaths from cardiovascular and circulatory diseases were the leading cause of avoidable deaths (39.2%) followed by neoplasms (15.1%), unintentional injuries (15.1%), and infectious diseases (13.1%). DISCUSSION: There are obvious limitations to using avoidable mortality to measure how effective our healthcare system is; for example, advances in education, road safety and housing also have a big impact on overall levels of health. Still, observing avoidable mortality trends over time and across the socioeconomic spectrum may provide new insights into inequalities in access to care within populations in Malaysia.},
note = {Type: POSTER PRESENTATION; Organisation: Institute for Public Health, National Institute of Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia},
keywords = {amenable deaths, avoidable mortality, healthcare systems, Malaysia, preventable deaths},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}