ANALYSIS OF THE MOST COMMON CAUSES OF DEATH AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH MAJOR RISK FACTORS FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are among the most significant public health challenges in contemporary society. Due to their long-term and non-infectious nature, these diseases have a lasting impact not only on affected individuals but also on their families and society as a whole. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), NCDs account for approximately 41 million deaths worldwide each year. The majority of these deaths are caused by cardiovascular diseases, malignant neoplasms, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes mellitus. The primary causes of these diseases are closely linked to unhealthy lifestyle habits that substantially contribute to the global prevalence of NCDs. In Lithuania, NCDs remain the leading cause of death, accounting for approximately 71% of all deaths. About half of these cases are directly associated with four major lifestyle-related risk factors: unhealthy diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, and low physical activity.
The aim of the study - to analyze and assess the most common causes of death attributable to NCDs and to evaluate the influence of major lifestyle-related risk factors on these deaths from a gender perspective.
Methods: Based on data from the 2024 State Register of Death Cases and Their Causes regarding the number of male and female deaths, and using the cause-of-death search tool, the ten most common causes of death due to NCDs were identified by gender. To assess the impact of these ten leading NCD-related causes of death on the average life expectancy (ALE) of men and women, the 2024 ALE indicators were calculated using the Sullivan method. The influence of alcohol consumption on NCD-related mortality was evaluated based on the methodology described in the study “Evaluation of Alcohol Control Policy and the Assessment of Alcohol-Related Harm” (State Mental Health Centre, 2013). This methodology was applied to estimate the effect of alcohol consumption on male and female mortality. Mortality attributable to other major lifestyle-related risk factors-unhealthy diet, smoking, and low physical activity-was assessed using the Risk Factor Attribution (RFA) indicator provided by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). This indicator estimates the proportion of deaths attributable to a specific risk factor, with RFA coefficient values ranging from 0 (when a disease is unrelated to a given risk factor) to 100 (when the disease is fully attributable to that factor).
Results and conclusions. The ten most common causes of death due to chronic non-communicable diseases accounted for 10,240 (55.9%) of all male deaths and 12,492 (65.3%) of all female deaths registered in Lithuania in 2024. In both genders, mortality was predominantly caused by cardiovascular diseases-ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases-which ranked first and second among the ten leading causes of death due to NCDs. These causes contributed the most to the reduction in average life expectancy for both men and women. Alcohol consumption was partially responsible for 1,268 deaths (10.0%) among women and 1,701 deaths (15.5%) among men. Unhealthy diet accounted for 4,250 deaths (34%) among women and 2,870 deaths (28%) among men. Smoking was associated with 1,458 deaths (14.2%) among men and 163 deaths (1.3%) among women. Low physical activity contributed to 502 deaths (4%) among women and 145 deaths (1.4%) among men. In 2024, 22% more women than men died from the ten leading chronic non-communicable diseases. The analysis showed that gender differences in the examined causes of death did not fully explain the significant disparity in average life expectancy between men and women. Alcohol consumption and smoking contributed more to male mortality, whereas unhealthy diet and low physical activity were more common causes of death among women.