Slovakia fares poorly in early death rankings

One third of deaths within the European Union could have been avoided in the light of current medical knowledge, writes a report issued by Eurostat. In the European Union, 1.7 million persons aged younger than 75 died in 2013. Among them, around 577,500 deaths (or 33.7% of total deaths) could be considered as premature, as they could have been avoided in the light of medical knowledge and technology. The highest shares of avoidable deaths were registered in Romania (49.4%) and Latvia (48.5%), followed by Lithuania (45.4%), with Slovakia (44.6%) coming in fourth place. One of the largest factors in preventable, early deaths is heart disease. The concept of avoidable mortality is based on the idea that certain deaths (for specific age groups and from specific diseases) could be 'avoided' - meaning they would not have occurred at this stage - if there had been timely and effective health care in place. Such statistics can be used as indicators of the performance of a country's healthcare system and its healthcare policies, reads the report.