Preventable causes of death

Figure 1: In 2011, deaths from potentially avoidable causes accounted for approximately 24% of all deaths registered in England and Wales. The leading cause of avoidable deaths was ischaemic heart disease in males and lung cancer in females.

Preventable causes of death are causes of death related to risk factors which could have been avoided.[1] The World Health Organization has traditionally classified death according to the primary type of disease or injury. However, causes of death may also be classified in terms of preventable risk factors—such as smoking, unhealthy diet, sexual behavior, and reckless driving—which contribute to a number of different diseases. Such risk factors are usually not recorded directly on death certificates, although they are acknowledged in medical reports.

  1. ^ Danaei, Goodarz; Ding, Eric L.; Mozaffarian, Dariush; Taylor, Ben; Rehm, Jürgen; Murray, Christopher J. L.; Ezzati, Majid (2009-04-28). "The Preventable Causes of Death in the United States: Comparative Risk Assessment of Dietary, Lifestyle, and Metabolic Risk Factors". PLOS Medicine. 6 (4): e1000058. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000058. ISSN 1549-1277. PMC 2667673. PMID 19399161.