economic growth on non-communicable diseases

What is it about?

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are currently the leading cause of death worldwide. In this paper, we examine the channels through which economic growth afects NCDs’ epidemiology. Following a production function approach, we develop a basic technique to break up the impact of economic growth on NCDs into three fundamental components: (1) a resource efect; (2) a behaviour efect; and (3) a knowledge efect. We demonstrate that each of these efects can be measured as the product of two elasticities, the output and income elasticity of the three leading factors infuencing the frequency of NCDs in any population: health care, health-related behaviours and lifestyle, and medical knowledge.

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Why is it important?

This paper provides a simple but coherent framework to describe and measure the impact of economic growth on mortality due to chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs, once considered diseases of afuence, are currently a major public health problem and the cause of about two-thirds of global deaths. The burden of NCDs is remarkable in all the world regions and is projected to increase during the next years (even in low- and middle-income countries). This global epidemic is acknowledged as a major threat to health systems and economic growth. The research to date has tended to focus on the economic burden of NCDs on individuals and countries. In this paper, we reverse the perspective by examining the main channels through which economic growth affects NCDs’ epidemiology. The study identifes three fundamental forces: (1) a resource effect; (2) a behaviour effect; and (3) a knowledge effect.