WHO Fact Sheets: Noncommunicable Diseases
2023
These fact sheets from the World Health Organization (WHO) provide an overview of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic obstructive respiratory disease, and diabetes. Also known as chronic diseases, they are typically of long duration, progress through a series of stages, and share risk factors such as unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, tobacco smoke, and the harmful use of alcohol. The effect of risk factors accumulate over the course of an individual’s lifetime and are reflected at the population level as elevations in the prevalence of high blood pressure, glucose, lipids, and obesity. While NCDs are not passed from person to person like infectious diseases, the “spread of chronic diseases across the globe” has been driven by rapid urbanization and the globalization of unhealthy lifestyles.
Fact sheets available:
- Cancer (2022)
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (2023)
- Cardiovascular Diseases (2021)
- Diabetes (2023)
WHO Fact Sheets: Noncommunicable Diseases
Source:
Noncommunicable Diseases. Fact Sheets. World Health Organization 2023. http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases.