Quantifying the potential gains in life expectancy from eliminating cardiovascular disease, road traffic injuries, and cancers in Iran.

BACKGROUND

Life expectancy (LE) serves as a critical health metric for assessing changes in risk factors, health outcomes, and the effectiveness of medical treatments. This research sought to determine the impact of cardiovascular disease, road traffic accidents, and all types of cancer on the increase in Iranian life expectancy for the years 2010, and 2020.

METHOD: Initial data on cardiovascular disease (CVD), all cancers, and road traffic injuries (RTI) by age, sex, and calendar year were obtained from the Iranian Death Registration System. Population data corresponding to these variables were retrieved from the Statistical Center of Iran. Finally, we utilized the period life table to estimate the effects of three mentioned causes of death on life expectancy increases. The data analysis was conducted using R software version 4.2.1.

RESULTS

In this study, excluding CVD increased life expectancy by 5.74 years for men and 10.62 years for women in 2010. In that calendar year, excluding deaths from RTIs increased life expectancy by 0.59 years for men and 0.24 years for women. Similarly, excluding cancer increased life expectancy by 1.31 years for men and 1.24 years for women. In 2020, excluding CVD increased life expectancy by 4.99 years for men and 9.66 years for women. Excluding road traffic injuries increased life expectancy by 0.46 years for men and 0.17 years for women. Excluding cancer increased life expectancy by 1.48 years for men and 1.39 years for women.

CONCLUSION

Our study found that at the national level, eliminating cardiovascular disease and then cancer had the greatest gain in life expectancy at birth and at other ages. Compared with the other two outcomes, the elimination of road traffic deaths had the smallest increase in life expectancy.