'Women in Oman living longer than men'

Muscat: Women are living longer than men in Oman according to a report released by the Ministry of Health (MoH) yesterday.
The report showed a 34.1 per cent rise in the Crude Birth Rate per 1,000 population, while the crude death rate remained static as in the past two years (2.9 per 1,000 population) and Omanis’ life expectancy at birth reached 74.2 years for males, and 78.8 years for females.
A medical expert said it is an international standard trend where women live longer than men. In Oman, the reasons for the same are because men are more prone to heart disease and are more frequently killed during road accidents than women.
“These stats are very normal as men are more prone to heart disease, which can cause mortality, apart from this; they are also the victims of car accidents, which happen in our country on a daily basis,” said the expert.
According to Dr. Francy Pulikkan, specialist in Internal Medicine at the Burjeel Hospital Oman, this is an international phenomenon, which takes place because of several factors.
“Very few women succumb to cardiovascular diseases prior to menopause, so there are very few heart attacks and strokes recorded in women.
Men’s habits also differ as they take up smoking and alcohol much more than females and men develop cardiovascular diseases early, compared with women. Females are also better at handling stress and there are various other reasons why women outlive men.”
MoH represented by the Department of Health Information and Statistics issued the annual report on Health Facts 2015, which included the most significant data and indicators related to healthcare institutions, utilisation of health services, as well as the indicators regarding health manpower, MoH hospitalisation and outpatient attendances.
HIV rates rose from 103 to 142 over a two-year period from 2013 to 2015. The report also indicated a growth in expenditure by the Ministry of Health during the last two years, which rose from OMR593.7 million to OMR892.2 million and the number of in-patients climbed to 3,049 per day from 2,878 in 2013, with a 61.5 per cent rise in bed occupancy rate.
The total number of deliveries also increased and reached 69,488 from 66,557 in 2013. The total number of doctors in 2015 also grew and stood at 8,914 from 7,673, while the number of nurses rose from 16,930 to 19,263 and the number of hospitals reached 70.
The report also showed enormous progress in health services during 2015 as the number of MoH healthcare centres reaches 182. Besides, the number of extended health centres reached 23, which included specialised clinics offering secondary healthcare services at the outpatient clinic level.
Compared with communicable diseases’ morbidity rates, the report revealed that non-communicable diseases topped morbidity rates.
Based on the rates of MoH’s hospital discharges in 2015, the cases of Ischemic heart diseases reached 13 cases per 10,000 people, with seven cases of hypertensive diseases, and nine cases of Diabetes Mellitus.
The report also showed the total Omani population rose over these two years from 3,855,206 to 4,159,102 in 2015, whereas the expatriate population fell from 43.7 per cent to 43.6 per cent of the total population.