The Global Burden of Disease study, published Thursday in The Lancet states that heart disease remains the leading cause of premature death in Canada and globally.Globally, ischemic heart disease caused a total of 9.48 million deaths, diabetes caused 1.43 million deaths and tobacco caused 7.1 million deaths in 2016, according to the study.
It also found that poor diet is associated with one in five deaths globally.
In Canada, the leading causes of premature death were ischemic, or coronary, heart disease, lung cancer and stroke. Ischemic heart disease, in which less blood and oxygen reaches the heart due to narrowed arteries, was the leading cause of premature death in most regions around the world, with the exception of low-income countries, where lower respiratory infections were the main culprit.
Violence was also a major cause of death in some parts of the world.The number of deaths related to conflict and terrorism rose by 143 per cent from 2006 to 2016, with a total of 150,500 people killed. Most of those deaths were attributed to conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.