The Impact of Selected Groups of Non-communicable Disease Deaths on Life Expectancy in the Slovak Republic.

Aim: The aim of this study was to compute the potential gains in life expectancy (PGLEs) if the five main groups of non-communicable disease deaths were eliminated in the Slovak population during 1996-2014, and to decompose PGLEs by five-year age groups.

Methods: PGLEs were computed from mortality reports for deaths from ischaemic heart disease (I20-25), cerebrovascular diseases (I60-I69), cancer (C00-C97), diabetes mellitus (E10-E14), and chronic respiratory diseases (J30-J98) using the life table decomposition technique.

Results: In 2014, life expectancy at birth was 76.87 years compared to 72.87 in 1996. The highest impact on life expectancy was recorded for ischaemic heart disease and PGLEs have changed from 3.9 years to 4.6 over 1996-2014. However, the trends for other diseases did not fluctuate. The PGLEs of cancer, as the second most influential disease, increased from 3.3 years to 3.6. Conversely, a slight decline was observed in cerebrovascular diseases from 1.13 years to 1.12, and diabetes mellitus from 0.14 years to 0.13. The proportion of diabetes mellitus and chronic respiratory diseases in PGLEs was low, approaching zero. As far as PGLEs among age groups in 2014 are concerened: whereas PGLEs for ischaemic heart disease mortality reduction are very similar among all age groups they are mostly on the decrease from other causes of death. However, PGLEs reached a value of 0.13 years in the 0-54 years age-group for diabetes mellitus; this means that the number of years of life lost are the same for 54 year old people and younger, with the impact of diabetes mellitus declining at age 55 and over. The same scenario is apparent for cerebrovascular diseases. The impact of mortality from other causes of death is decreasing with age.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that optimum benefit would be gained from prevention programs for reduction of ischaemic heart disease mortality in all age groups.