2.7 The rise of Non-Communicable Diseases

Earlier we noted the increase in rate of death by Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) as the income of a country increases. This is not a matter of income and geography, it also varies over time.  As the graph below shows, NCDs are on the rise throughout the world, irrespective of the country’s economic status. 

Figure 2.5 The ten leading causes of death in the world 2000-2012 (Source: World Health Organization [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] )

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Comparison of leading causes of death over the past decade, 2000 and 2012

Bar chart comparing data for 2000 (purple bars) and 2012 (blue bars). No numbers are given alongside the bars, with the longest bar over 7 million and the shortest bar over 1 million. Longest to shortest

Ischaemic heart disease

Stroke

COPD

Lower respiratory infections

Trachea, bronchus, lung cancers

HIV/AIDS

Diarrhoeal diseases

Diabetes mellitus

Road injury

Hypertensive heart disease

Preterm birth complications

Tuberculosis

Figure 2.5 The ten leading causes of death in the world 2000-2012 (Source: World Health Organization)

The top three diseases of the graph, including Ischaemic Health Disease, Stroke and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), are all Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD). One of the main reasons for this is the fact that low income countries are rapidly adopting the lifestyles of high income countries (unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol) that can cause Non-Communicable Diseases. .

There are a number of factors beneath these risky behaviours. Factors such as globalisation (integration of people, goods, ideas of different nations), urbanisation (the move towards people living in cities) and the ageing of a population. We call these factors "the causes of the causes“, and explore them in the next section.