China has plans to raise the average life expectancy to 77.3 by 2020 and 79 by 2030, as stated in "Healthy China 2030." (Photo : Getty Images)
Having placed health at the center of its entire policy-making machinery, China has committed to raising the average life expectancy to 77.3 by 2020 and 79 by 2030, as stated in "Healthy China 2030" which was released in October.
In the recently concluded 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion held in Shanghai on November 21-24, Premier Li Keqiang announced that China's current average life expectancy is 76.3, beating many mid- and high-income countries.
According to World Bank data, China's average life expectancy in 2007 was 74.34. The improvement in public health could be attributed both to the central government's drive to include health in all policies and to the more health-conscious people.
A health brochure containing 66 practical pieces of advice was released in 2008 and amended in 2015, and this tool had helped in promoting health awareness to the citizens. Among the simple tips included in the brochure were "Avoid too much salt, sugar or oil," "Always pay attention to blood pressure and blood glucose," and "Don't abuse antibiotics."
According to a Global Times report, a five-year project which started in 2011 had been successful in lowering the daily salt intake of residents in east China's Shandong Province who preferred salty, preserved food.
In 2011, the average daily intake of salt in Shandong was 12.5 grams and 23.9 percent of the people had high blood pressure. In 2016, the numbers dropped by 2.4 grams and by 1.7 percent, respectively. This was done by educating the people, promoting products with low salt in supermarkets, and encouraging manufacturers to include salt content on their product labels.
It was also reported that self-health groups are gaining popularity in Shanghai where the members are sharing health tips, organizing exercise classes and exchanging experiences to help each other in improving and managing their health. Today, Shanghai has 26,000 of such health groups with 440,000 members.
Health awareness is spreading from the political down to the personal level.
However, chronic diseases persist to be an obstacle in China's health goal as the fatality rate increased from 76.5 percent in 1990 to 86.6 percent in 2015. According to the World Health Organization, "one of the most important steps towards a Healthy China is a national smoke-free law, which would have a significant impact on preventing many non-communicable diseases."
