High blood pressure is the greatest risk to health across the globe, responsible for more than nine million deaths in 2010, according to figures published today.
The report found that smoking and alcohol have overtaken child hunger in the last 20 years to become the world’s second and third leading risks.
But growing rates of obesity are also taking their toll, researchers found.
Analysis was undertaken by an international consortium of scientists as part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 and the results are published in The Lancet.
Ith estimates the disease burden attributable to 43 risk factors in 1990 and 2010, also
Professor Majid Ezzati of the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, UK, one of the study’s senior authors, said that the figures show a growing burden of risk factors that lead to chronic diseases in adults, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and a decreasing burden for risks associated with infectious diseases in children.
“But this global picture disguises the starkly different trends across regions,” he said. “The risks associated with poverty have come down in most places, like Asia and Latin America, but they remain the leading issues in sub-Saharan Africa.”
The researchers estimated both the number of deaths attributed to each risk factor and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).
The risk factor with the greatest increase in health burden was high body mass index, which was ranked tenth in 1990 and sixth in 2010. There were more than three million deaths in 2010 that were caused by excess body weight – more than three times as many as under nutrition.
Alcohol harm accounted for 4.9 million deaths worldwide in 2010 and was the leading risk factor in Eastern Europe, most of Latin America and southern sub-Saharan Africa.
Tobacco smoking, including second-hand smoke, was the risk factor that affected western Europe and high-income North American countries most, and accounted for 6.3 million deaths worldwide in 2010.
Dietary risk factors and physical inactivity collectively accounted for one tenth of DALYs in 2010, with the most prominent dietary risks being too much salt and not enough fruit.
“The good news is there are lots of things we can do to reduce disease risk,” Professor Ezzati said. “To bring down the burden of high blood pressure, we need to regulate the salt content of food, provide easier access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and strengthen primary healthcare services.
“Under nutrition has come down in the ranking because we’ve made a lot of progress in many parts of the world. This should encourage us to continue those efforts and to replicate that success in Africa, where it’s still a major problem.”
A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lim SS et al. Lancet 2012; 380.
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