Beijing released a white paper on its healthcare services and the health of its residents on July 11, making this year the ninth year in a row that the Beijing municipal government has published the data, with the survey showing that over 90 percent of patients are satisfied with healthcare in the city.

Life expectancy extended by 0.12 years

According to the white paper, the life expectancy of permanent residents in Beijing in 2017 was 82.15 years, 0.12 years longer than that in 2016, ranking at the top in China and close to the world's top like Japan (83.4 years) and Switzerland (82.3 years).

Experts attribute the continuous increase in life expectancy to the continued improvement of the environment, healthcare, and quality of air, water and food. However, the growth rate, affected by many factors, may slow down in the future.

Death rate of cerebrovascular disease up by 2.4 percent

In 2017, the main cause for death of the city's permanent residents remained to be non-communicable chronic diseases, and the probability of premature death from major chronic diseases among permanent residents in Beijing aged 30 to 70 was 10.8 percent, down 0.92 percent from 2016, akin to the level of high-income countries.

The top three causes for death were malignant tumor, heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, the same as in 2016 and accounting for 71.7 percent of all deaths. Compared with the previous year, the death rate from malignant tumors increased by 3.6 percent, that from heart disease increased by 5.2 percent, and that from cerebrovascular diseases decreased by 2.4 percent.

Experts predict that as the proportion of the aging population increases, the health hazards caused by chronic diseases will continue in the next few years, and prevention and control of chronic diseases remains a priority.

Physical fitness of primary and middle school students increased

In the physical health test for primary and middle school students in 2017, 93 percent of the students passed, a year-on-year increase of 0.1 percent; 50 percent received good grades and 13 percent got excellent grades, both up 6 percent from the previous year. The average height of boys and girls aged 6 to 17 increased by 0.17 centimeters and 0.08 centimeters respectively. The average height for male and female teenagers aged 17 was 175.7 centimeters and 163.2 centimeters respectively. Furthermore, the gap in height between urban and rural students continued to narrow.

In the 2016-2017 academic year, the proportion of Beijing primary and secondary school students with poor sight was 58.6 percent, equal to the previous school year. Yet, the figures for the last four consecutive years show a declining trend, indicating effective prevention and control of poor sight.

Prevalence of insect-borne infectious diseases increased

As the prevalence of global insect-borne infectious diseases rises in recent years, the average density of mosquitos in Beijing in 2017 reached 1.47, 15.7 percent higher than that in 2016; the average density of flies reached 5.41, up 26.7 percent from the previous year; and that for cockroaches and mice rose by 17.8 percent and 7.2 percent respectively.

The possible reasons for those rising figures could be due to the relatively higher temperatures and rainfall in 2017. Considering the fact that sewage and domestic garbage breed mosquitos and flies, Beijing will carry out environment regulation measures this year to address these threats to health.

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