Noncommunicable Diseases in the Middle East and North Africa: Addressing Risk Factors Among Young People
2017
This 2017 data sheet, produced by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), provides data and graphics on risk factors for noncommunicable diseases among young people for 19 countries and territories across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)—particularly cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases—account for 74 percent of all deaths in MENA, and premature deaths due to NCDs place significant burdens on families, health systems, and communities. Many of the modifiable risk factors, such as tobacco use, physical inactivity, poor diet, and harmful use of alcohol, start in adolescence and young adulthood, and this data sheet argues that addressing these risk factors in youth in MENA is critical to changing the trajectory of NCDs in the region. The data sheet accompanies a PRB policy report entitled Curbing the Noncommunicable Disease Epidemic in the Middle East and North Africa: Prevention Among Young People Is the Key. An appendix is also available that provides data sources and all the data presented in both publications, including information on source, year, age, and size of the sample for each risk factor. See similar reports produced by PRB on noncommunicable disease risk factors among young people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Source:
Noncommunicable Diseases in the Middle East and North Africa: Addressing Risk Factors Among Young People Is Key to Curbing the Epidemic. Data Sheet. Population Reference Bureau 2017. https://www.prb.org/resources/curbing-the-noncommunicable-disease-epidemic-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa.