Life expectancy in Moscow surpasses certain EU states – health dept

File Photo of Crowd of Russians

(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 9, 2013) Mortality rates in Moscow have declined by practically every parameter thanks to the modernization of city healthcare in 2011-2012, city health department head Georgy Golukhov said at a city government meeting on Tuesday.

“The death rate from external causes decreased by 25% in the reporting period; the death rate from respiratory disorders went down by 19%, and the death rate reported by suicides dipped by 32%,” he said.

On the whole, the mortality rate in the city was reduced by 10% over the past two years to 9.9 deaths per 1,000 residents, he said. “This index is very close to the EU index of 9.3,” the official said.

“The life expectancy rate of 75.8 years (in Moscow) has surpassed many EU countries. The rates of deaths from vascular diseases are 18% down. Moscow lags behind EU states by this parameter; there is still room for improvement,” Golukhov said.

Deaths caused by road accidents declined by a quarter in the city over the past two years, he said.

Besides this, cancer death rates went down from 238 to 209 per 100,000 residents in the same period. “The index is slightly higher than Russia’s average because of the high detection rate,” Golukhov said.

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