LISBON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Circulatory diseases and tumors are the ones that most affect the Portuguese and the main causes of death in Portugal, according to official figures released Sunday by Portuguese Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Statistics.
Circulatory diseases account for almost 30 percent of total mortality in Portugal, while malignant tumors account for 25 percent, showed official figures.
Sunday marks the 71st anniversary of the World Health Day under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization, whose theme for this year is "universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere".
However, Circulatory diseases have a declining tendency in mortality in Portugal, while cancers have "a very significant increase among the Portuguese population".
Circulatory diseases claimed the lives of about 32,300 people in 2017 in Portugal, a year-on-year reduction of 1.3 percent, while malignant tumors contributed to more than 27,500 deaths in 2017, emerging as the second cause with an increase of 0.5 percent over the previous year.
One of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease is hypertension, which affects more than a third of the population between the ages of 25 and 74, according to official figures.
Obesity also appears as one of the most important risk factors for diseases in Portugal, official figures revealed. Some 28.7 percent of Portuguese adults are obese and over 30 percent of the children were overweight.
In terms of overall health indicators, average life expectancy in Portugal reached 80.8 years in the period between 2015 and 2018, namely 77.7 years for men and 83.4 years for women.
The role of vaccination was contributing to the increase in life expectancy and reduction of mortality, according to the figures. Some 97 percent of Portuguese children are vaccinated between the first and second year of life.
