5. Cost–Effective Strategies for Noncommunicable Diseases, Risk Factors, and Behaviors

Abstract

Public health specialists concerned with low– and middle–income countries have devoted considerable attention to communicable diseases and maternal and child health for some time. Recently, however, their attention has turned to noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and various cancers and intentional and unintentional injuries. This shift is due to the recognition that the burden of noncommunicable disease in low– and middle–income countries not only is growing rapidly but is already astoundingly large. Indeed, by 2001, cardiovascular disease had become the leading cause of death worldwide in both developing and developed countries. Noncommunicable diseases are now dominant sources of morbidity and mortality around the globe.