DRUG ABUSE TAKES ITS TOLL

MEN will lose more years of life because of drug abuse tban other
cause - barring heart disease - by the year 2016.

Although illicit drugs as may not kill as many Victorian men as other
afflictions, they will cut them down at a younger age.

Trends in overdose deaths over the past 10 years suggest drugs will
leap from today's ranking as the 10th greatest cause of years lost by
2016.

They would replace the existing No.2, lung cancer, with its death toll
dropping in men because of anti-smoking measures.

Heart disease will still be responsible for the most years lost by men
and women, even though the number of cases is expected to fall.

Breast cancer will replace stroke as the No.2 disease robbing years of
life in women.

Dr Thee Vos, from Victoria's Department of Human Services, compiled
the predictions in the Victorian Burden of Disease study and released
them at a VicHealth seminar.

The third-ranked disease for men will be lung cancer, with prostate
cancer at No. 4 up from No. 8.

Stroke will slip from No. 3 to No.9 and road accidents from No. 5 to
19.

But Dr Vos said there were signs that dramatic drops in road deaths
may not continue.

For women, lung cancer will move from No. 4 to No. 3 and lung diseases
from No.6 to No.5 because women started smoking later than men and are
now affected by smoking diseases.

"The tobacco epidemic in Victorian women is starting to mature," Dr
Vos said.

He found heart disease and cancer accounted for the most years of life
lost in men and women.

Preliminary results of the disease burden, including years lost to
premature death and years with disability at lower quality of life,
show heart disease, cancer and mental health problems each account for
about 20 percent of ill-health in Victoria.

Those from rural and remote areas had a reduced life
expectancy.

Metropolitan men born in 1996 can expect to live 76.5 years. compared
with 75.5 for rural men and 74.5 for remote area men.

City women's average life expectancy was 82, compared with 81.5 for
rural and 81 for remote area women.

Dr Vos found those in Melbourne's eastern suburbs had the state's
highest life expectancy, with the lowest in the inner suburbs,
Grampians and Loddon-Mallee areas.

Checked-by: derek rea