Percent of noncommunicable disease deaths that are premature

Calculation

The estimates are derived from the WHO Global Health Estimates 2015. All-cause mortality rates by age and sex for WHO Member States are derived from life tables which draw on UN World Population Prospects 2015 revision, recent and unpublished analyses of all-cause and HIV mortality for countries with high HIV prevalence, vital registration data, and estimates of child mortality from UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. Cause-of-death distributions are estimated from death registration data when available; assessed and adjusted for completeness and ill-defined categories. Selected specific causes are based on WHO and UN Interagency estimation processes, which made use of epidemiological studies, disease registers and notifications systems. Other causes of death for populations without useable death-registration data are estimated, drawing on updated IHME single-cause analyses from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study, which made use of available death registration data as well as other sources of information on deaths, covariate regression modelling, and patterns of causes of death for similar countries. These estimates represent the best estimates of WHO, computed using standard categories, definitions, and methods to ensure cross-country comparability, and may not be the same as official national estimates. Due to changes in input data and methods, GHE2015 are not comparable to previously published WHO estimates.

Definition

Deaths due to noncommunicable diseases among people below 70 years, as a percentage of NCD deaths among all ages.

Relevance

As countries undergo epidemiologic and nutrition transitions, the development of NCDs is shifting to younger age groups.