The Minister of Health, Fátima Matute, highlighted yesterday the “significant reduction” in tobacco and alcohol consumption in the Community of Madrid in the last twenty years, although she has recognized that smoking continues to be a widespread public health problem and alcohol is remains the most consumed psychoactive substance.
Matute yesterday presented the latest Report on the State of the Health of the Population of the Community of Madrid 2023, prepared by the General Directorate of Public Health, which states that, since 2001, occasional or daily tobacco consumption in the region has decreased 16.6 percentage points in men, and 15.7 in women.
Although one in five adults continue to smoke, there is a decrease in young people aged 15 to 16 who practice this habit daily, reaching 5.2% of boys and 8.2% of girls.
The report reflects how, during the years 2021 and 2022, 49% of people between 18 and 64 years old (59.7% in men and 40.5% in women) regularly drank alcohol.
However, in the last twenty years the intake of what continues to be the most consumed psychoactive substance by Madrid residents has decreased, since in 2001 the relative number of at-risk drinkers rose to 4.3% and in 2021 it had dropped up to 1.8%.
Public Health warns that the average age of initiation of this very harmful habit is 14 years.
Regarding narcotics, cocaine, with 26.5%, heroin (20.3%) and cannabis (15.3%) are the main causes of assistance in the Network of Attention to Drug Addicts of the Community of Madrid.
41.1% of its users receive this public service due to polyconsumerism. Furthermore, 1.8% have done so to be treated for a behavioral addiction, more than half for gambling.
Once the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has been overcome, the region has recovered and consolidated its leadership position in Europe in relation to life expectancy at birth, reaching an average of 84.6 years in 2022 (82. 08 in men and 87.11 in women), according to the National Institute of Statistics.
Life expectancy has improved, above all, due to the reduction in mortality of people over 65 years of age.
At the same time, the region’s population has grown by 1.37 million people (25.6%), while its degree of aging has increased (from 102.4 to 127.2 people aged 65 or over per year). every hundred young people under 15).
The birth rate continues the general downward trend that began in 2009 in Europe and stands at 7.61 live births per thousand inhabitants in the Community of Madrid, while the average age of women who give birth to their first child increases.
The number of live births has increased from 59,724 in 2001 to 51,366 in 2021, while the average age of the mother at the time of the birth of the first child is 34.6 years.
More than 10% of the cases correspond to pregnant women over 40, a fact that has increased in the last three decades and shows the increasing incorporation of women into the labor market.
On the contrary, the percentage of pregnancies in those under 20 years of age has decreased to below 2%.
The report reveals that overweight and obesity in adults remains at very high levels.
The problem is especially relevant in men: 53.8% in 2022, with an annual increase of 0.91% since 1994; while, in women, the prevalence of obesity is 32.7% in 2022, with an annual increase of 1.5%.
In young people, the prevalence has gone from 17.9% in 2001 to 21.2% in 2022 in men, and from 7.5% to 16.9% in women.
Statistically, women go to the health center more than men. The most common reasons for consultation are infectious and acute upper respiratory pathologies, such as Covid or the flu.
Regarding the most frequent causes of hospital admissions, the main ones in men are pathologies associated with the nervous system, with 25.9%, digestive disorders, with 22.4%, and tumors, with 20%.
In women, they are conditions associated with the nervous system, with 31.6%, followed by tumors, with 19.5%.
Regarding mental health, the increase in assistance to adolescents, mainly women, stands out and, up to the age of 14, the majority of cases are related to behavioral and sleep disorders.
In the age group from 15 to 74 years, the most common cases are anxiety or depression, being surpassed from that age onwards by memory problems and dementia.
The document also includes an upward trend in sexually transmitted diseases, except HIV/AIDS infection.
In the last five years, the number of cases of syphilis, ‘Chlamydia trachomatis’ infection (including lymphogranuloma venereum) and gonococcal infection have increased by 67.4%.
