Non-communicable diseases increase premature death globally

In the first in a series of papers has been published in the Lancet today, Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 has been updated to GBD 2013 three years later. The authors aimed to ascertain changes in the global, regional and national burden of mortality for 240 causes of death across 188 countries between 1990-2013. Using similar methods to those used in GBD 2010, but with the addition of new data and improvements in their statistical modelling, the authors found several exciting results.

Generally, although has been a reduction in age- and sex- specific mortality, there has been a shift towards a greater proportion of deaths being due to non-communicable disease and injury. Rising death rates from some important NCDs such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, selected vascular conditions such as atrial fibrillation, and chronic kidney disease, as well as stagnant mortality from leading causes of death such as cancers of the lung, liver, prostate, pancreas, and kidney have the potential to reverse some of these gains made in premature mortality reduction.

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The Global Burden of Disease: non-communicable diseases increase premature death

Source: Biomed Central