The leading global risks for mortality in the world are high blood pressure (responsible for 13% of deaths globally), tobacco use (9%), high blood glucose (6%), physical inactivity (6%), and overweight and obesity (5%). These risks are responsible for raising the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancers. They affect countries across all income groups: high, middle and low.
The leading global risks for burden of disease as measured in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are underweight (6% of global DALYs) and unsafe sex (5%), followed by alcohol use (5%) and unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (4%). Three of these risks particularly affect populations in low-income countries, especially in the regions of South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The fourth risk – alcohol use – shows a unique geographic and sex pattern,with its burden highest for men in Africa, in middle-income countries in the Americas and in some high-income countries.
Download the full report [pdf 3.77Mb]
MORE INFORMATION ON THE REPORT
Key figures and graphs [ppt 1.17Mb]
THE REPORT IN SECTIONS
:: Front cover, table of contents and summary [pdf 930kb]:: Part 1: Introduction [pdf 994kb]
:: Part 2: Results [pdf 1.57Mb]
:: Part 3: Joint effects of risk factors [pdf 443kb]
:: Annex A: Data and methods [pdf 841kb]
:: References [pdf 148kb]
STATISTICS FROM THE REPORT
:: Regional estimates of YLL, YLD, DALYs, and deaths attributable to 24 risk factors for 2004: estimates of exposure prevalence for selected risk factors___________________________________________________________________