Introduction to Non-Communicable Diseases- a global killer

[Music] hello and welcome to this video on non-communicable diseases we'll take a look at what they are and some key features about them so what are non-communicable diseases they 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 or 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 disease and asthma and diabetes others include mental health disorders chronic kidney disease 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 this 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 so who is affected by non-communicable disease these diseases 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 let's take a look at some of the 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 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 generally the more risk factors a person is exposed to the higher likelihood there is of developing a disease an important way to prevent and control ncds is to focus on reducing the risk factors while risk factors can be specific to each disease an effective public health strategy to address ncds at a population level is to focus on the most common risk factors and there are proven cost-effective strategies to address these they include reducing smoking through actions such as education smoking cessation programs bans on smoking advertising bans and increasing taxes and prices of tobacco products promoting physical activity through actions such as media campaigns and community-based educational programs promoting physical activity as part of routine primary health care services promoting healthy diets through actions such as reducing salt intake eliminating trans fats and raising taxes on sugar sweetened beverages reducing the harmful use of alcohol through actions such as bans on advertising limiting access increasing taxes enforcing drink driving laws and psychosocial interventions to people with harmful alcohol use these go hand in hand with other preventative strategies such as early screening effective management of the disease and managing complications and at a broader level addressing the social determinants of health and that's an overview of the prevention of ncds as our understanding around how ncds grow we are learning more about how genes play an important role in the development or progression of ncds we know that a defect or mutation in a single gene can lead to diseases such as cystic fibrosis but for other diseases there can be one or more mutations occurring at several different genes this can then lead to either the development of disease or increase a person's susceptibility to a disease when people who are susceptible to a disease are exposed to other risk factors such as smoking or environmental changes they may then go on to develop a disease in addition to mutations in the genes there can be differences in how the information stored in the genes is expressed the study of this is called epigenetics the link between genes and ncds is an area of active research and will give us further insights on innovative strategies to prevent and control ncds and that's a quick overview of non-communicable diseases and some key features about them to find out more have a look at the links below

Channel: Let's Learn Public Health

Views: 155,258

Keywords: ncd, noncommunicable diseases, non communicable diseases, chronic disease, global health, diseases, public health, global issues, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, public health education, health issues, global. health

Id: BWolWB3tSEU

Length: 7min 26sec (446 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 05 2022