Diseases of affluence no longer: non-communicable disease mortality as a policy priority in South Asia

Non-communicable diseases (NCD), historically considered to be associated with affluent regions, now comprise the greatest burden of disease in nearly every region of the world. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is foremost among these with approximately 80% of CVD deaths occurring in the developing world. Disease burden comparisons are infrequent in developing regions since the respective health infrastructures often lack the capacity to collect comprehensive mortality data. Sri Lanka and Maldives are two South Asian countries with such capacity and have recently begun keeping mortality data with electronic records. This descriptive study is the first to have made use of the data in order to gauge these nations’ NCD burdens relative to selected developed nations and identify priority areas for further investigation and policy discussion. Results show that Sri Lanka and Maldives display the highest age-standardized mortality rates for overall NCDs, CVD, hypertension and COPD.