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Background reader & resources

Moritz Fegert
Moritz Fegert foraus • 21 March 2022
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Background reader (more resources at the bottom)

 

Intro to NCDs

While COVID-19 has been the main public health concern over the last two years, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) constitute a long-existing and alarming threat to global health which represents 71% of deaths in the world. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration, of slow progress and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors. The main types of NCDs are cardiovascular diseases (like heart attacks and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma), diabetes, and mental health conditions. While the fight against NCDs has made great progress from 2000 to 2010, global efforts have been largely disrupted, since then with underinvestment in prevention, early diagnosis, screening, treatment, and rehabilitation for NCDs in the context of Covid-19. 

Risk factors

Why do socio-economic and environmental determinants of health matter?

NCDs are caused by multiple factors some being of biological nature, others relating to lifestyle choices and conditions in which individuals evolve. While medical treatments are important, prevention is thus key to ensuring a sustainable fight against NCDs. It is important to reflect upon the possible policy measures which can help prevent and address these modifiable factors to ensure a long-term reduction, perhaps even elimination of NCDs. 

 

International recognition - partial progress

The international community has for a long time recognised four major risk factors being responsible for the four main types of NCDs: tobacco use, physical inactivity, the harmful use of alcohol, and unhealthy diets (4x4 matrix). More recently, the scope has been extended with the the 3rd UN high-level meeting on NCDs recognising air pollution as another major risk factor of NCDs (forming the so-called ‘five-by-five’ approach, incl. mental health conditions being recognised as the 5th NCD type). With NCDs representing almost three-quarters of global deaths, risk factors and their control represent a huge challenge and are part of the UN 2030 Agenda. 

But where do we stand on the prevention of these risk factors? Find below a few statistics to kick-start our brainstorming for the workshops:

  • Little effort has been made regarding the harmful use of alcohol and coordination of measures between countries has been criticized as ineffective.
  • Prevention of tobacco use has seen some progress, considering that tobacco use has declined from 24.9% in 2015 to 23.6% in 2018. But on another level, only 32 WHO member states are on track to achieve the NCD voluntary target of a relative reduction of tobacco use prevalence of 30% between 2010 and 2025.
  • Concerning air quality, in 2016, 9 people out of 10 used to breathe air that didn’t match with the WHO air quality standards and at least half of the world population has been exposed to air pollution which is at least 2.5 times above the safety standards of the WHO.
  • The risk factor of unhealthy diets is often linked to the socio-economic environment people live in. The consumption of trans fats increases for instance the risks of death from any cause by 34% and from coronary heart disease by 28%. WHO advocates for diets in which trans fats don’t exceed 1% of energy intake, which means that it should represent only 2.2g per day for a 2000 calorie diet.

Some references if you want to dig deeper

WHO:

Other relevant sources of information:

Some insightful video material 

 

Any further interesting sources in mind? Feel free to share them below in the comment section!