Life expectancy at birth for females increased from 72.5 years in 2014 to 74.7 in 2018, compared to 69.7 years for males in 2014 and 72.3 in 2018, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in its latest report. The highest survival expectancy for females aged 60-64 years was 18.8 years, compared to18.3 years for males, and the lowest age expectancy (75 years and over) was 8.5 years compared to 9.7 years for males in 2018. In terms of the female mortality rate, the CAPMAS revealed that it decreased slightly from 5.6 deaths per 1,000 females in 2014 to 5.3 deaths per 1,000 females in 2017. Regarding the causes of the female mortality rate, the CAPMAS disclosed that 50.6% of female deaths in 2017 were due to periodic system diseases. “Female mortality rate due to circulatory system diseases decreased slightly from 50.9% in 2014 to 50.6% of total female mortality in 2017 and mortality rate due to digestive system diseases decreased from 9.5% in 2014 to reach 8.9% of total female mortality in 2017,” according to the CAPMAS. Moreover, it further showed out that female deaths due to respiratory system diseases decreased from 8.3% in 2014 to 8.0% in 2017, while female mortality rate due to tumours was 6.7% in 2014, compared with 6.4% in 2017. The lowest percentage of female deaths was due to pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperal diseases, as the report presented that it decreased from 0.2% in 2014 to reach 0.1% in 2017. Furthermore, the maternal mortality rate decreased from 52 women per 100,000 live births in 2014 to 46 women in 2017, according to the CAPMAS. Notably, maternal mortality rate is defined as the number of mothers who die during a specific calendar year due to pregnancy, childbirth, or during the 40 days following birth. The CAPMAS monitored that the rate of older women with difficulties from high to absolute in 2017 represented 12.3% of total senior women in Egypt. It further revealed that the difficulty of walking or climbing stairs represented the highest percentage of difficulties in that age group (60 years and over), where it reached 9.9% for females compared to 6.8% for males.
Governmental efforts to improve women's health conditions in Egypt A source from the National Council for Women (NCW) explained that these improvements in the health of Egyptian women are due to the efforts of the NCW and the ministry of the social solidarity including, having a bill against the marriage of underage girls. In addition to the draft law to protect women from violence, as well as the early detection of breast cancer in full for 52,000 cases through the NCW branches, the Women's Health Center, the Ministry of Health, the Oncology Institute, the Nasser Institute, and the Baheya Hospital. In terms of the ministry of social solidarity's efforts to improve the women's health, she explained that it includes raising awareness of 1.150 million families on the importance of family planning and providing free family planning services to women through 92 NGOs in 10 governorates. In addition, there is a need to implement 439,000 visits and 51,000 women have been transferred to health units and clinics to receive service. “Also, it should be mentioned that 33 family planning clinics have been equipped and developed by NGOs, and doctors and nurses are provided to ensure regular service, and 37 additional clinics are being developed in underserved areas, as well as launching intensive media and field campaigns, and devoting the capacity of 1,271 community educators to raise awareness,” she noted.
