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Statistics on Causes of Death in Malaysia. — Graphics by BERNAMA[/caption]
SHAH ALAM, Oct 31 — Ischaemic heart diseases, or commonly known as heart attack, remains as the leading cause of death in Malaysia, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) revealed yesterday.
In its latest Statistics on Causes of Death in Malaysia, ischaemic heart diseases, which are heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries, was said to be the main cause of death in Malaysia last year, with a total of 18,267 or 15.6 per cent of total deaths from various causes.
The statistics showed that from the total deaths from hearts attacks, 12,510 deaths were of males in Malaysia and the remaining 5,757 were of females.
It also stated that there is an average of 50 deaths caused by ischaemic heart diseases every day.
“Ischaemic heart diseases remained as the principal causes of death, 15.6 per cent followed by pneumonia (11.8 per cent), cerebrovascular diseases (7.8 per cent), transport accidents (3.7 per cent) and chronic lower respiratory diseases (2.6 per cent),” DOSM said in the statistics released yesterday.
In 2018, 172,031 deaths were recorded in Malaysia by DOSM, which was an increase of 2.3 per cent compared to 168,168 deaths in 2017.
According to the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, ischaemic heart disease is also called coronary heart disease, which is the term used to describe what happens when the heart’s blood supply is blocked or interrupted by a build-up of fatty substances in the coronary arteries.
Coronary heart disease is categorised as one of the types of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), which is classified as the number one cause of death globally by the World Health Organisation.
