Prognosis
China's Increasing Wealth Is Changing the Way People Die
- Chronic Illnesses have become top causes of premature death
- 90% of U.S. health expenditure is for chronic conditions
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Chronic illnesses like stroke, heart problems and lung cancer became the top causes of premature death in China over the last three decades, according to a new study showing health trends that increasingly resemble the U.S. and other advanced nations.
The study, published this week in the Lancet, showed those conditions replacing lung infections and neonatal disorders as the lead killers in China. The analysis offers a bird’s eye view of the new pressures facing Asia’s largest economy. As China grapples with more complex and long-running diseases that are expensive to treat, the shift is increasingly likely to drive up its health-care costs.