The chance of dying from chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes declined in four out of five countries between 2010 and 2019, finds a study of 185 countries published in The Lancet today1.
154 million lives and counting: 5 charts reveal the power of vaccines The latest study is the first to investigate the change in NCD mortality across countries.
It finds that, from 2010 to 2019, the probability of dying from an NCD before the age of 80 fell in 152 countries for women and in 147 countries for men.
In 2019, women in Japan and men in Singapore had the lowest risk of dying from a NCD among the countries studied, while women in Afghanistan and men in Eswatini had the highest (see ‘Risk of dying from chronic disease’).
China, Egypt, Nigeria, Russia and Brazil had a reduction in chronic-disease deaths, whereas India and Papua New Guinea experienced an increase in NCD deaths over the same period.
A study published today in The Lancet that examined 185 countries found that between 2010 and 2019, the risk of dying from chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease decreased in four out of five countries1.
Worldwide, the leading cause of death is non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The UN wants to cut the number of people dying from these illnesses by one-third by 2030.
Five charts show how effective vaccines are, with 154 million lives saved and counting.
The latest study is the first to investigate the change in NCD mortality across countries. According to the study, the likelihood of dying from an NCD before turning 80 decreased for women in 152 countries and for men in 147 countries between 2010 and 2019.
More than half of the countries experienced slower declines in the 2010s than in the previous decade, despite these gains. “We saw much lower mortality rates around the turn of the millennium, but despite the sudden political attention over the last decade, things are not doing as well as before,” says Majid Ezzati, a co-author and Imperial College London global health researcher.
According to the study, the countries with the lowest risk of NCD-related deaths in 2019 were Japan and Singapore, while the countries with the highest risk were Afghanistan and Eswatini (see “Risk of dying from chronic disease”).
According to the data set, NCD mortality decreased in all 25 high-income nations between 2010 and 2019, with the United States experiencing the smallest decline and Denmark the largest for both sexes (see “Most and least improved”). India and Papua New Guinea saw an increase in deaths from NCDs during the same time period, while China, Egypt, Nigeria, Russia, and Brazil saw a decrease in these deaths.
According to the report, the development of vaccines against hepatitis and cervical cancer, the widespread use of statins and hypertensives to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, and the integration of better treatments and preventions into health-care systems were the main factors that led to improvements in death rates, according to Veronica Le Nevez, a public-policy specialist at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia.
Government prohibitions on alcohol and tobacco have also contributed to a decrease in the death rate from conditions like alcohol use disorder and lung cancer that are associated with these substances.
