Noncommunicable Diseases Country Profiles 2011

World Health Organization. Noncommunicable Diseases Country Profiles 2011. Geneva: World Health
Organization; 2011. Available at: http://www.who.int/nmh/publications/ncd_profiles_report.pdf

The country profiles presented here reveal an enormous burden on mortality and alarming rates for risk factors like tobacco smoking, physical inactivity, raised blood pressure, overweight and obesity, raised cholesterol and raised blood glucose. However, there are also signs of positive improvement in some countries where health systems have been strengthened and population strategies have been effectively applied.

The profiles also show that health-care systems for NCDs in many countries struggle to establish and maintain integrated policies and deliver a comprehensive range of essential primary care services, from promotion and prevention, to early detection and timely treatment. As a result, a large proportion of people with high NCD risk remain undiagnosed and untreated.

Improving health is not just about investing more resources. It is equally important to set national targets and measure results. I hope that the information contained in this report will be useful to countries and other stakeholders in identifying areas for priority action, in evaluating policy and programme interventions and in tracking progress. In this respect, WHO will continue to work with Member States to address the data gaps and improve the accuracy of the information included in the next edition of this report.