Beijingers live longer but get sicker
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Global Times, July 5, 2011
Beijing authorities released their bound report on residents' health for 2010 on Monday, highlighting major threats to well-being that included strokes, obesity and smoking. It also noted an increase in mental illness in the young. The health report will be released annually.
The 2010 report will be made available in bookstores for 54 yuan (US$8.35) per copy.
"It could be used as a residents' health handbook," Beijing Municipal Health Bureau spokesperson Ma Yanming told the Global Times on Monday.
The report said that children born in 2010 now have a life expectancy of 80.8 years, an increase of 3.6 months from 2009, according to a bureau press release.
While life expectancy is up, so is cancer. Malignant tumors, heart disease and stroke were listed as the capital's top three killers, accounting for 73.8 percent of all deaths.
Tumors have been the top killer for four successive years since 2007, rising from 20.7 percent of total deaths in 2007 to 25.6 percent in 2010. Thirty percent of 2010's cancer patients died of lung cancer.
The report also found 12 percent of 20,000 interviewees over age 45 were at risk of having a stroke.
Mental health problems also appear to be on the rise. By the end of 2010, the city had 55,781 registered serious mental disease patients. Those aged 21 to 30 were the highest risk group, with more new and relapsed patients suffering serious illnesses. Schizophrenia was the diagnosis for 24.48 percent of all registered patients, and bipolar disorder accounted for 30.27 percent.
Ma Xin, president of Beijing Anding Hospital, told the Global Times that mental illness is unrelated to age.
Social progress and improved medical treatment has reduced the stigma of mental illness, so more young patients who recognize they have a problem are willing to seek treatment, Ma Xin explained.
The health bureau's release chalked up the capital's mental health challenges to the pressure and competition of living in Beijing.
The health index still shows Beijingers have the best health in China, at a level near that of developed countries.
The report also claims that 81,410 smokers in total were persuaded to stop lighting up in public, and 1,057 work units were punished by smoking control supervisors.
Still, 24.7 percent of middle school students tried smoking in 2010, the report said.
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