Life is not trivial, and my country's average life expectancy has increased again!

Recently, the National Health Commission held a press conference to introduce the progress and achievements of the Healthy China Action. Mao Qunan, deputy director of the Office of the Healthy China Action Promotion Committee and director of the Planning Department of the National Health Commission, introduced that at present, my country's average life expectancy has increased to 77.93 years, and major health indicators are among the top middle- and high-income countries.

The increase in life expectancy is one of the best indicators for measuring a group. Why do we say that? Let’s talk about it today!

01. The best indicator to measure a group

Life is not a trivial matter. I think that improving the overall indicator of life expectancy is a big deal. For example, the average life expectancy of a population refers to the average number of years that people born in the same period are expected to live if the current age-specific mortality rate remains unchanged.

It can be seen that age-specific mortality rate is a very critical factor affecting life expectancy.

Over the years, my country has made a lot of efforts to reduce age-specific mortality rates, a typical example being infant mortality.

02. Neonatal mortality rate

The formula for calculating infant mortality rate is IMR = number of infants who died in a certain year / number of corresponding live births in the same area × 1000‰

What does this number mean?

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, this number was about 200‰; in 2000, this number was 28.38‰; in 2008, it was 14.9‰; that is, before the founding of the People's Republic of China, 2 out of 10 babies died. Today, the number of deaths in 100 babies does not exceed 1.

These are not just cold numbers, but human lives.

03. “Healthy China 2030” Planning Outline

In fact, the data made public this time is part of my country's "Healthy China 2030" Plan. In this plan, there are clear requirements for many data.

For example, infant mortality

Area: Health Level

Indicator: Infant mortality rate (‰)

2015: 8.1

2020: 7.5

2030: 5.0

This guideline was issued in 2016. We can see that in 2015, China's infant mortality rate was 8.1‰, which means 8 infants died per 1,000 people. According to the plan, by 2020, it will be reduced to 7.5‰, and by 2030, it will be reduced to 5‰, which means 3 fewer infants died per 1,000 people.

Don't underestimate this data. Reducing infant mortality means not only focusing on the time of birth, but also including pre-pregnancy management, diagnosis during pregnancy, and care for premature babies.

There are too many things involved during this period. For example, many pregnant women now have a much higher level of knowledge about childbirth. I often see some disputes between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, such as "how was childbirth in that era, and people are more delicate nowadays". In fact, these so-called delicate things are the result of the popularization of modern scientific childbirth and people paying more attention to pregnancy and childbirth. Each small step in this process may eventually save many lives in front of the group.

Of course, there are actually many more indicators in the "Plan", and they are all very directly meaningful.

Another example is the maternal mortality rate.

Maternal mortality rate (1/100,000)

2015: 20.1

2020: 18.0

2030: 12.0

The requirement was lowered from 20.1 to 12.0.

Maybe it is difficult for people nowadays to understand the death of pregnant women, but at least when I was a child, I heard a lot of similar things, so much so that there is a saying that "the son's birthday is the mother's hard day." In fact, even today, there are still various possibilities for pregnant women to die, especially during childbirth.

Similar, there are

Premature mortality from major chronic diseases (%)

2015: 19.1 (2013)

2020: 10% lower than 2015

2030: 30% lower than 2015

The proportion of urban and rural residents who meet the National Physical Fitness Test Standards (%)

2015: 89.6 (2014)

2020: 90.6

2030: 92.2

These data seem simple, but they are actually very difficult, especially as we go further in time, the difficulty increases because there are more and more detailed areas that need attention and improvement, and the requirements for the entire country and society are also higher.

Nothing is trivial in life. I hope that this data will continue to improve in the future, or even achieve the goal ahead of schedule.