ULAN BATOR, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has launched nationwide health checkups starting Sunday to detect serious diseases in the early, such as cancers and cardiovascular diseases, and promote a healthy lifestyle, said the country's health ministry on Monday.
Mongolia's population of 3.4 million will be divided into six age groups: 0-5 years old, 6-17 years old, 18-30 years old, 31-45 years old, 46-60 years old, and over 61 years old, and will get health advice for free.
The Mongolian government's long-term development policy, dubbed "Vision 2050," is aimed at building a healthy, active lifestyle, developing an accessible and effective health care system, and improving the public health system. The nationwide campaign is one of the measures to achieve the aim.
The country's authorities believe that the one-year early-detection checkups will help create a unified health database on population health, detect diseases that are the leading causes of death at an early stage, including cancers and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as narrow the life expectancy between men and women.
In Mongolia, the average life expectancy is 70.8 years for women and 60.6 years for men, and the government aims to reduce the gap to five years by 2024, according to the health ministry. ■
