Mohammed Ali at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and coauthors examined data on deaths as a result of ischemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, respiratory disease, and common cancers across forty-nine countries using the World Health Organization's Mortality Database - finding that mortality for heart disease, stroke, and stomach and cervical cancers declined globally.

Chart showing Ischemic Heart Disease mortality rates per country]Share on Pinterest
Trends In Age-Standardized Mortality Rate Per 100,000 Population For Ischemic Heart Disease Among Males And Females In Ten Selected Representative Countries, 1980-2012
Copyright: Health Affairs

From 1980 to 2012 diabetes and liver cancer deaths increased, as did chronic respiratory disease and lung cancer deaths among women. Compared to declines in high-income countries, low- and middle-income countries experienced increases in breast and colon cancer deaths and less impressive declines for other cancers, stroke, and heart disease. These country-level disparities may reflect differences in socioeconomic development and risk exposure, health care delivery, and societal-level policies. Since these diseases cumulatively account for half of global deaths, continued efforts are needed to monitor and address these conditions.

Study: Noncommunicable Diseases: Three Decades Of Global Data Show A Mixture Of Increases And Decreases In Mortality Rates, Mohammed K. Ali, Lindsay M. Jaacks, Alysse J. Kowalski, Karen R. Siegel and Majid Ezzati, Health Affairs, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0570, published September 2015.