TEHRAN- Road accidents is the leading cause of death in Iranian youth, accounting for 30% of deaths among them, said the head of community, family and schools health department in the Ministry of Health. 

Hamed Barakati made the announcement on Tuesday during a conference to mark the National Youth Day, IRNA reported. 

“Of course, road accidents is a major cause of death in all age groups, but it is more widespread among the young,” said Barakati. 

In October, Iran’s Emergency Medical Services director Pir Hossein Kulivand said some 7,000 individuals were killed in traffic-related accidents in the past eight month, adding that road crashes are the third and fourth leading cause of death among children aged 10 to 14 and 5 to 9 years old respectively.

According to Barakati, Other causes of death in young people are suicide (6.5%), violence (5.9%), cardiovascular diseases (5%) and substance abuse. 
Barakati added that the young, that is people aged between 18 to 29 years old, make up 20% of the country’s population.

Insufficient physical activity 

Over the conference, Gelayol Ardalan, the head of the youth, teenagers and schools department at the Ministry of Health, called for plans to increase physical activity among the young people.  

According to Ardalan, 47% of the Iranian youth has less than 1.5 hours of daily physical activity. 

based on the surveys in 1392 [March 2013-March 2014], 7% of the Iranian youth has a fatty liver disease, said Ardalan, adding that the problem is 5 million of the young population are university students that might have an unhealthy diet or consume too much fast foods. 

“1.5% of the young population in Iran suffer from depression, 0.5% have bipolar disorder, 0.7% have Epilepsy, 4% have used some type of tobacco products, 0.7% have used some kind of Opioids, 2% have used tranquilizers and 0.3% have consumed alcoholic drinks,” she said. 

In February, Deputy Health Minister Baqer Larijani announced that 57% of the total population have insufficient physical activity. 

SJ/MQ/MG