In the European Union (EU), 1.7 million persons aged less than 75 died in 2013. Among them, around 577,500 deaths (or 33.7 percent of total deaths) could be considered as premature, as they could have been avoided in the light of medical knowledge and technology, a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, reveals on Tuesday.
The proportions of potentially avoidable deaths through optimal health care among all deaths of persons aged less than 75 in 2013 vary considerably between EU Member States. In this dark top, the highest shares of avoidable deaths were registered in Romania (49.4 percent) and Latvia (48.5 percent), followed by Lithuania (45.4 percent) and Slovakia (44.6 percent).
On the other hand, the share was below 30 percent in France (23.8 percent), ahead of Denmark (27.1 percent), Belgium (27.5 percent) and the Netherlands (29.1 percent).
In the EU in 2013, heart attacks (184,800 avoidable deaths or 32 percent of total avoidable deaths of persons aged less than 75) accounted by far for the largest share of potentially avoidable deaths. They were followed by strokes (93,900, or 16 percent), colorectal cancers (67,000 or 12 percent), breast cancers (50,800 or 9 percent), hypertensive diseases (28,700 or 5 percent) and pneumonia (24,100 or 4 percent).