Indians living longer, healthier lives: Lancet

Washington, Dec 18: India has made great strides in reducing both child and adult mortality since 1990, says a global study, adding that adults and children in the country are living longer and healthier lives than two decades earlier. Involving more than 700 researchers and covering 188 countries, the study found that in India, the average yearly rates of decline in mortality have been 3.7 percent per year for children and 1.3 percent per year for adults. Between 1990 and 2013, life expectancy at birth increased from 57.3 years to 64.2 years for males and from 58.2 years to 68.5 years for females. “It is very encouraging that adults and children in the country are living healthier lives. But India's growing influence on global health means we must do more to address the diseases that kill people prematurely,” said Jeemon Panniyammakal of the Public Health Foundation of India and a co-author of the study. Published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, the findings showed that countries have made great strides in reducing mortality from diseases such as measles and diarrhoea, with 83 percent and 51 percent reductions, respectively, from 1990 to 2013.