Non-Communicable Diseases

Introduction

Non-communicable diseases are a diverse group of diseases that are not communicable, meaning you can't catch them from another person.  They include:

• Cancer
• Cardiovascular Disease
• Chronic Respiratory Diseases
• Diabetes
• Mental illness

These disease groups are linked by common risk factors:

1. social determinants of health (this is the environment in which we are born, live and grow and the opportunities we are given in those environments)
2. tobacco
3. alcohol
4. poor nutrition
5. physical inactivity

NCDs are collectively responsible for almost 70% of all deaths worldwide. Almost three quarters of all NCD deaths, and 82% of the 16 million people who died prematurely, or before reaching 70 years of age, occur in low- and middle-income countries.  Reducing the major risk factors for noncommunicable diseases – tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and the harmful use of alcohol – is the focus of prevention of NCDs.

Global Burden of disease - the rise of NCDs	Busting the NCD myths

The profession of physiotherapy helps millions of people every year to prevent non-communicable diseases and their risk factors – most importantly obesity. They also manage their effects, along with the effects of aging, illness, accidents, and the stresses and strains of life.

Physiotherapists specialise in human movement and physical activity, promoting health, fitness, and wellness. They identify physical impairments, limitations, and disabilities that prevent people from being as active and independent as they might be, and then they find ways of overcoming them. They maximise people’s movement potential.

The World Health Organization points out that physical inactivity is one of the leading risk factors for global mortality, causing 3.2 deaths annually, and that physical activity can reduce non-communicable diseases, it is clear that the profession has a major part to play.

People with chronic health problems can improve their health by learning how to exercise safely under the guidance and instruction of physiotherapists. Activity has to be introduced carefully if a person is overweight, unfit, older, or has a chronic disease. Physiotherapists do this by examining the person, recommending exercises that are safe and appropriate for them, and educating them about how to look for signs of trouble. This makes them the ideal professionals to prescribe exercise programmes for non-communicable diseases.

Physiotherapy doesn’t just mean more healthy people, but more productive people who can contribute to countries’ economies. Their services are provided in an atmosphere of trust and respect for human dignity and underpinned by sound clinical reasoning and scientific evidence.The message is clear: physiotherapists are the movement, physical activity, and exercise experts and a resource in the battle against non-communicable disease that should never be overlooked.

Resources

WHPA Health Improvement Card

WHO Non-Communicable Disease: Country Profile 2011

The World Economic Forum and the Harvard School of Public Health: The Global Economic Burden of Non-communicable Diseases.

Prevention and control of NCDs: Guidelines for primary health care in low-resource settings