The global economic burden of non-communicable diseases

01/09/2011
World Economic Forum

This study released by World Economic Forum at the UN summit on NCDs in New York warns that five common chronic diseases - heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, cancer, diabetes and mental health woes will cost the world $47 trillion by 2030.

Through this report, the World Economic Forum and the Harvard School of Public Health try to inform and stimulate further debate by developing new estimates of the global economic burden of NCDs in 2010, and projecting the size of the burden through 2030. Three distinct approaches are used to compute the economic burden: (1) the standard cost of illness method; (2) macroeconomic simulation and (3) the value of a statistical life. This report includes not only the four major NCDs (the focus of the UN meeting), but also mental illness, which is a major contributor to the burden of disease worldwide. This evaluation takes place in the context of enormous global health spending, serious concerns about already strained public finances and worries about lacklustre economic growth. The report also tries to capture the thinking of the business community about the impact of NCDs on their enterprises. Finally, this report informs the resource allocation decisions of the world’s economic leaders – top government officials, including finance ministers and their economic advisors – who control large amounts of spending at the national level and have the power to react to the formidable economic threat posed by NCDs.

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Webcast: 4th Plenary meeting - UN General Assembly, Sep 19, 2011.

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Report: 2008-2013 action plan for control of NCDs.