Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are chronic diseases that result in the deaths of 70 percent of the world’s population or about 40 mn people per year. In the age range of 30–39 years, about 1.5 million or around 80 percent of patients, suffered premature deaths from NCDs. Diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular/ cerebrovascular diseases, emphysema, cancer, hypertension and obesity are the major NCDs that can cause illness and death. Health statistics reports from the year 2007 to 2014 showed that mortality rates for cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes mellitus increased year over year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) set nine targets for the prevention and control of chronic NCDs to decrease premature mortality from NCDs to be reached by 2025. This program was intended to decrease premature mortality from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes mellitus and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 25 percent among people aged 30–70 years. Patients with NCDs require proper treatment to prevent complications that might ensue, such as cerebrovascular accidents, myocardial infarction or chronic kidney diseases. Without proper care for NCDs, the aforementioned diseases can cause complications that increase the severity of the illness and negatively affect the quality of life, hinder economic development and threaten public health as well as increase the country’s health-care budget.
The WHO classified the risk factors of NCDs into three types: modifiable factors such as healthy eating, not smoking and reducing alcohol/ tea/coffee drinking; second were unchangeable risk factors such as sex and age and third, metabolic risk factors such as hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, hypertension and obesity. The human-generated risk factors of NCDs include physical, mental, behavioral, socioeconomic and environmental factors. The social, cultural and environmental change affects human behavior and can promote health or leads to deterioration. An insecure economic status led people to work harder with little or no time for exercise accompanied by irregular eating habits and a poor quality diet. Nowadays, many people are moving from rural communities to cities. Accompanying this transition, communities may integrate both urban living and country living into what are termed semi-urban communities showing both urban and rural structures, lifestyles, socioeconomic status and health problems. Health risk determinants will change based on the level of the transition of the community. The more we understand the dynamics of the community and the risk factors for NCDs, the more effectively we can prevent and control NCDs.
A Non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. NCDs include Parkinson’s disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, most heart diseases, most cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts, and others. NCDs may be chronic or acute. Most are non-infectious, although there are some non-communicable infectious diseases, such as parasitic diseases in which the parasite’s life cycle does not include direct host-to-host transmission.NCDs are the leading cause of death globally. In 2012, they caused 68% of all deaths (38 million) up from 60% in 2000. About half were under age 70 and half were women. Risk factors such as a person’s background, lifestyle and environment increase the likelihood of certain NCDs. Every year, at least 5 million people die because of tobacco use and about 2.8 million die from being overweight. High cholesterol accounts for roughly 2.6 million deaths and 7.5 million die because of high blood pressure.
