Non-infectious diseases

A non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. NCDs include Parkinson's disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and others. NCDs may be chronic or acute. Most are non-infectious, although there are some non-communicable infectious diseases, such as parasitic diseases in which the parasite's life cycle does not include direct host-to-host transmission.

The four main NCDs that are the leading causes of death globally are cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes. NCDs account for seven out of the ten leading causes of death worldwide. Figures given for 2019 are 41 million deaths due to NCDs worldwide. Of these 17.9 million were due to cardiovascular disease; 9.3 million due to cancer; 4.1 million to chronic respiratory diseases, and 2.0 million to diabetes. Over 80% of the deaths from these four groups were premature, not reaching the age of 70.

Risk factors such as a person's background, lifestyle and environment increase the likelihood of certain NCDs. Every year, at least 5 million people die because of tobacco use and about 2.8 million die from being overweight. High cholesterol accounts for roughly 2.6 million deaths and 7.5 million die because of high blood pressure.