These diseases disproportionately affect poor families with possible side effects of disability and premature death, and worsening poverty as people pay for medical treatment out of their own pockets, says a press statement issued by the World Bank quoting the report.[break]
The new report “Capitalizing on the Demographic Transition: Tackling Non-communicable Diseases in South Asia” claims heart disease is now the leading cause of death in adults aged 15-69 in the region, and that South Asians suffer their first heart attacks six years earlier than other groups worldwide.
"NCDs have already become the largest health burden in Nepal, accounting for 60% of lives lost due to ill health, disability, and early death. The burden of NCDs will proportionally rise in the future, in part, due to further aging of the population with 5.8% of the population expected to be over the age of 65 by 2025," says the press statement.
Nepal is also susceptible to risk factors of NCDs including smoking and alcohol consumption. Tobacco use among women is the highest among the South Asian countries at 28% while smoking prevalence among youth is among the highest at 13% for boys and 5% for girls. The prevalence of hazardous and harmful drinking is also high at 39% for males and 30% for females.
"This unfair burden is especially harsh on poor people, who, after heart attacks, face life-long major illnesses, have to pay for most of their care out of their savings or by selling their possessions, and then find themselves caught in a poverty trap where they can´t get better and they can´t work," the statement says quoting co-author Michael Engelgau, a World Bank Senior Public Health Specialist on secondment from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Engelgau says that low birth weight -- common among poor families in Nepal -- is an important risk factor for NCDs in adults and that multiple risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and glucose, frequently occur in the same person.
The new report says that with average life expectancy in Nepal now at 67 years and rising, people are getting older without the better living conditions, healthier nutrition, rising incomes, and access to good healthcare that benefited older people in developed countries in previous decades. As a result, Nepalis are becoming more vulnerable to heart disease, cancers, diabetes, and obesity, and creating significant new pressures on health systems for their treatment and care.
The new report has identified smoking and excessive drinking as major risk factors in NCDs. The statement says prevalence of smoking and drinking in Nepal is among the highest in the region, especially, with regards to women.
"It would be prudent for Nepal to limit tobacco advertising, harmonize tobacco taxation, and strengthen anti-smuggling measures to reduce these risk factors," quotes the report.
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