Acting Early on Non-Communicable Diseases 2026

The evolving burden of NCDs1 Understanding NCD trajectories and variations reveals where transformation is most needed and most achievable. Performance differences demonstrate that improvement is feasible with existing resources. The eight countries examined achieve high life expectancies (77.2 to 84.1 years) yet face mounting challenges from NCDs.6 Age-standardized NCD mortality rates vary widely, from 230.7 per 100,000 population (Japan) to 460.2 (Poland), highlighting substantial room for improvement even among high- income countries with advanced health systems.7Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) measure the overall disease burden by combining years of life lost due to premature death with years lived with disability. One DALY equals one lost year of healthy life. DALYs allow comparison of disease burden across different conditions and populations. Age-standardized DALYs adjust for differences in population age structure, enabling fair comparisons between countries or across time periods. All NCDs – DALYs (per 100,000), all ages and age-standardized, 2011, 2016 and 20218FIGURE 1 Source: Adapted from: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). (2023). Global burden of disease study 2023 Acting Early on Non-Communicable Diseases: A Framework for Health System Transformation 6 4.9% 0.7% 0.3% 11.0% 4.1% 8.1% 5.1% 5.7% 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 Canada F r ance Germany Greece Italy Japan Poland Spain All ages: Age standardized % change (all ages)2011 2016 2021