A GLOBAL KILLER… NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES – AN INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome as we look at non-communicable diseases. We’ll take a look at what they are and some key features about them. Non-communicable diseases are a large group of diseases which are by definition not communicable from one person to another. They’re also called chronic diseases because they're usually long lasting and progress slowly. They occur as a result of a complex interaction of genetic, physiological, behavioral and environmental factors.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a very broad and diverse group of diseases and there are many different types.  The four main types that are responsible for over 80 percent of all deaths are cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks and strokes, cancer, chronic respiratory disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, asthma and diabetes. Others include mental health disorders, chronic kidney diseases, musculoskeletal disease and sensory disorders such as eye disease or hearing loss . Some of these such as cardiovascular diseases are large contributors to death and others such as mental health disorders can have significant health effects due to the disability they cause.  

NCDs are a major problem all over the world and are responsible for about 41 million deaths a year which is about 71 percent of all deaths. Most of these are in low and middle-income countries. In addition to this, they cause considerable disability as well.  They have a significant economic impact due to health care and medication costs and because they limit a person's ability to work.  Countries spend a significant proportion of their health care budgets on these diseases and the problem is only going to get worse.  

It’s estimated that by 2030 deaths from NCDs will increase to 52 million a year this is due to a number of reasons such as population growth, a rise in aging population, globalization, urbanization and changes in behavioral occupational and environmental risk factors.

Non-communicable disease can affect some groups of people more than others and in different ways.  All age groups can be affected by these diseases for example genetic diseases and some cancers can have an impact from early childhood. However, NCDs are generally more common in the elderly. This is because risk factors accumulate over time and the elderly tend to have co-existing diseases and weakened immune systems. There is an inverse relation between socioeconomic status and NCDs.

People with low socioeconomic status are at a higher risk of dying from these diseases and tend to have more risk factors compared to those with high socioeconomic status. NCDs and poverty are also closely interrelated. In a vicious cycle, poverty can lead to increased rates of NCDs and these diseases can drive people into poverty.  

RISK FACTORS FOR NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES.

There are many risk factors that contribute to the development of NCDs and these can vary depending on the disease but broadly speaking, there are two types of risk factors: non-modifiable and modifiable.  

Non-modifiable risk factors are those that can't be changed by an individual, these include age, sex and genetic makeup.  

Modifiable risk factors on the other hand are risk factors that can be changed by a person. There are four important modifiable risk factors; these are smoking, physical inactivity, poor nutrition and the harmful use of alcohol.  These behavioral risk factors could lead to or worsen metabolic risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood lipids, increased blood glucose and obesity.

It is important to note that the exposure to risk factors can happen over a person's lifetime. It could be during childhood, adolescence adulthood, and midlife or even before birth.

During a person's lifetime, there are critical periods of growth and development when risk factors can do more damage than they would do at other times and different risk factors can gradually accumulate over the life course and cause an impact in later life.  

The most important idea is to focus on reducing risk factors to prevent and control NCDs.

These include reducing smoking through education, smoking cessation programs, and increasing taxes and prices of tobacco products, promoting physical activity through media campaigns and community-based educational programs, promoting healthy diets through actions such as reducing salt intake, eliminating trans fats, and raising taxes on sugar sweetened beverages, and reducing the harmful use of alcohol through bans on advertising, limiting access, increasing taxes enforcing drink driving laws, and psychosocial interventions.

These strategies go hand in hand with other preventative strategies such as early screening, effective management of the disease and managing complications, and addressing the social determinants of health. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a group of diseases that can lead to either the development of disease or increase a person's susceptibility to it.

Genes play an important role in the development or progression of NCDs, and when people are exposed to other risk factors such as smoking or environmental changes, they may go on to develop a disease. Epigenetics is an area of active research that is providing insights on innovative strategies to prevent and control NCDs. Thank you for your continued readership as we keep learning about health. Keep it here and until next time, it’s a goodbye for now.

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