The burden and costs of chronic diseases in low-income and middle-income countries

Summary This paper estimates the disease burden and loss of economic output associated with chronic diseases—mainly cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes—in 23 selected countries which account for around 80% of the total burden of chronic disease mortality in developing countries. In these 23 selected low-income and middle-income countries, chronic diseases were responsible for 50% of the total disease burden in 2005. For 15 of the selected countries where death registration data are available, the estimated age-standardised death rates for chronic diseases in 2005 were 54% higher for men and 86% higher for women than those for men and women in high-income countries. If nothing is done to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, an estimated US$84 billion of economic production will be lost from heart disease, stroke, and diabetes alone in these 23 countries between 2006 and 2015. Achievement of a global goal for chronic disease prevention and control—an additional 2% yearly reduction in chronic disease death rates over the next 10 years—would avert 24 million deaths in these countries, and would save an estimated $8 billion, which is almost 10% of the projected loss in national income over the next 10 years.