Risk Factors for the top Noncommunicable Diseases

(Picture Source: Siimon, 2020)

This chart gives a clear snapshot view of 4 top noncommunicable diseases and their shared risk factors. It’s interesting to see that tobacco use can lead to all 4 diseases. Tobacco has been declared the biggest epidemic in the world. Alone, it is responsible for 6 million deaths per year (WHO, 2020).

Smoking, however, is not the only risk factor to look out for. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study that analyzed the most common risk factors for NCDs. The authors, Ezzati and Reboli (2013), point out that the epidemiology transition of these diseases is really the interplay of how the risk factors interact with the healthcare available in a given geographical area. They list risk factors ranging from smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, poor nutrition, and lack of physical activity. The authors believe that the way forward is through policies and program implementation.

Source

Ezzati, M., & Riboli, E. (2019, December 26). Behavioral and dietary risk factors for noncommunicable diseases. Retrieved from https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1203528

WHO. (2020). Eastern Mediterranean Region. Retrieved January 24, 2020, from http://www.emro.who.int/noncommunicable-diseases/causes/tobacco-use.html

Photo by Andres Siimon on Unsplash