Illustrative image (Photo:Freepik) Hanoi (VNA) - Ischaemic heart diseases have become the key cause of death for Malaysians in 2022, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) reported on October 30.
Last year, 16.1% of 205,525 deaths in Malaysia were caused by ischemic heart disease, it said.
DOSM noted the disease has been the leading cause of death over the past two decades in Malaysia, except for 2021, when COVID-19 topped the list.
Pneumonia was the second-highest cause of death with 13.3%. This was followed by cerebrovascular diseases, COVID-19 infection and transport accidents.
The principal causes of death for the population aged 41-59 years and 60 years and over were Ischaemic heart diseases at 20% and 16.7%, respectively. Transport accidents were the leading causes of death for the population aged 15-40 years (19.2%) while pneumonia was the major cause of death for the population aged 0-14 years (4%).
According to the DOSM, unhealthy lifestyle practices and diet are among the contributors to death due to Ischaemic heart diseases nowadays.
Some other non-communicable diseases, such as cerebrovascular diseases, hypertensive diseases and diabetes mellitus, were also caused by unhealthy lifestyle practices and diet, it added./.
