The Next Pandemic?
The Next Pandemic?
This report is based on extensive data analysis and desk research, complemented by five in-depth interviews with experts on NCDs. The main findings of the research are as follows.
Related content
Value-based healthcare in Sweden: Reaching the next level
The need to get better value from healthcare investment has never been more important as ageing populations and increasing numbers of people with multiple chronic conditions force governments to make limited financial resources go further.
These pressures, along with a greater focus on patient-centred care, have raised the profile of VBHC, especially in European healthcare systems. Sweden, with its highly comprehensive and egalitarian healthcare system, has been a leader in implementing VBHC from the beginning, a fact that was underscored in a 2016 global assessment of VBHC published by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
This paper looks at the ways in which Sweden has implemented VBHC, the areas in which it has faced obstacles and the lessons that it can teach other countries and health systems looking to improve the value of their own healthcare investments.
Breast cancer patients and survivors in the Asia-Pacific workforce
With more older women also working, how will the rising trend of breast cancer survivorship manifest in workplace policies, practices and culture? What challenges do breast cancer survivors face when trying to reintegrate into the workforce, or to continue working during treatment? How can governments, companies and society at large play a constructive role?
This series of reports looks at the situation for breast cancer survivors in Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. It finds that while progress has been made, more needs to be done, particularly in South Korea, where public stigma around cancer remains high.
The Cost of Silence
Cardiovascular diseases levy a substantial financial toll on individuals, their households and the public finances. These include the costs of hospital treatment, long-term disease management and recurring incidence of heart attacks and stroke. They also include the costs of functional impairment and knock-on costs as families may lose breadwinners or have to withdraw other family members from the workforce to care for a CVD patient. Governments also lose tax revenue due to early retirement and mortality, and can be forced to reallocate public finances from other budgets to maintain an accessible healthcare system in the face of rising costs.
As such, there is a need for more awareness of the ways in which people should actively work to reduce their CVD risk. There is also a need for more primary and secondary preventative support from health agencies, policymakers and nongovernmental groups.
To inform the decisions and strategies of these stakeholders, The Economist Intelligence Unit and EIU Healthcare, its healthcare subsidiary, have conducted a study of the prevalence and costs of the top four modifiable risk factors that contribute to CVDs across the Asian markets of China, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
Download the report to learn more.
Significant policy gaps exist for delivering integrated care for people living with heart disease
Related content
The heart of the matter
The heart of the matter: Rethinking prevention of cardiovascular disease is an Economist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by AstraZeneca. It investigates the health challenges posed by cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the developed and the developing world, and examines the need for a fresh look at prevention.
View report in German | French | Italian | Spanish | Portuguese (Brazilian) | Mandarin
Addressing the global stroke burden
The socioeconomic burden of stroke looks set to become increasingly heavy on high-income as well as on low- and middle-income countries in the decades ahead. The prevalence of stroke is likely to continue to rise, leading to further costs, including direct costs (such as healthcare) and indirect costs (such as lost productivity due to absenteeism from the workplace or presenteeism).
This report, based on in-depth interviews with nine experts on stroke from around the globe, assesses current developments and the economic burden of stroke across the regions of the world. It also presents examples of effective policy responses to stroke, including measures aimed at prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Finally, this report assesses what policymakers and medical practitioners need to do if the burden of stroke is to be eased. The main findings of the research are presented below.
Low- and middle-income countries are particularly at risk from the rising cost burden of stroke in the coming decades. The prevalence of stroke in high-income countries is rising as populations age. Meanwhile, in low- and middle-income countries the Westernisation of diets and lifestyles, coupled with rising levels of obesity and diabetes, represents a significant risk factor for stroke.
Policymakers’ efforts to tackle stroke appear to have been particularly effective in the areas of prevention and the organisation of stroke care. Experts describe improvements in primary and secondary stroke prevention as paramount in tackling the disease. Not least, medical practitioners are better able to control blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and diabetes today than in the past, while lifestyles are improving in many high-income countries.
If UN and World Health Organisation (WHO) targets aimed at reducing non-communicable diseases including stroke are to be met, policymakers must take urgent action. There is scope to improve education around the risk factors for stroke and the recognition of stroke. Improved medical data and better management of existing medical conditions may help. New technology has a role to play too, as does improved access to healthcare and medication.
Examining the policy response to vascular disease: The example of periphera...
While cardiac diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD), including heart attack and stroke, are widely understood, many vascular diseases—those affecting blood vessels outside the heart, including arteries and veins supplying all other equally vital organs—are comparatively less well understood by the public and policymakers. These peripheral diseases are a major cause of morbidity, and it is now known that arterial disease outside the heart is a powerful predictor of heart attack and stroke.
How can research stem the tide of the NCD pandemic?
Related content
Value-based healthcare in Sweden: Reaching the next level
The need to get better value from healthcare investment has never been more important as ageing populations and increasing numbers of people with multiple chronic conditions force governments to make limited financial resources go further.
These pressures, along with a greater focus on patient-centred care, have raised the profile of VBHC, especially in European healthcare systems. Sweden, with its highly comprehensive and egalitarian healthcare system, has been a leader in implementing VBHC from the beginning, a fact that was underscored in a 2016 global assessment of VBHC published by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
This paper looks at the ways in which Sweden has implemented VBHC, the areas in which it has faced obstacles and the lessons that it can teach other countries and health systems looking to improve the value of their own healthcare investments.
Breast cancer patients and survivors in the Asia-Pacific workforce
With more older women also working, how will the rising trend of breast cancer survivorship manifest in workplace policies, practices and culture? What challenges do breast cancer survivors face when trying to reintegrate into the workforce, or to continue working during treatment? How can governments, companies and society at large play a constructive role?
This series of reports looks at the situation for breast cancer survivors in Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. It finds that while progress has been made, more needs to be done, particularly in South Korea, where public stigma around cancer remains high. The Cost of Silence
Cardiovascular diseases levy a substantial financial toll on individuals, their households and the public finances. These include the costs of hospital treatment, long-term disease management and recurring incidence of heart attacks and stroke. They also include the costs of functional impairment and knock-on costs as families may lose breadwinners or have to withdraw other family members from the workforce to care for a CVD patient. Governments also lose tax revenue due to early retirement and mortality, and can be forced to reallocate public finances from other budgets to maintain an accessible healthcare system in the face of rising costs.
As such, there is a need for more awareness of the ways in which people should actively work to reduce their CVD risk. There is also a need for more primary and secondary preventative support from health agencies, policymakers and nongovernmental groups.
To inform the decisions and strategies of these stakeholders, The Economist Intelligence Unit and EIU Healthcare, its healthcare subsidiary, have conducted a study of the prevalence and costs of the top four modifiable risk factors that contribute to CVDs across the Asian markets of China, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
Download the report to learn more.
Developing countries are ill-equipped to manage the growing chronic-disease burden
Related content
Confronting obesity in the Middle East: Cultural, social and policy challen...
This report is based on five in-depth interviews with senior obesity experts from the region, complemented by extensive desk research. The main findings of the research are as follows:
The prevelance of obesity in the region is among the highest in the world. High levels of obesity in the region are the result of a complex combination of interconnected environmetal, cultural, and biological causes. Obesity is a mejor economic burden on countries in the region. A widespread public perception in the region is that obesity is a symptom of diabetes or hypertension, rather than a disease in itself.
Mental health and integration
Mental illness is the second largest contributor to years lost due to disability (YLDs) in the Asia-Pacific region. Nowhere, though, do more than half of those affected receive any medical treatment. This is not some temporary crisis. It is business as usual.
Across the region, policy makers and health systems are taking note. In 2010, Japan declared mental illness to be one of just five priority diseases; China passed its first ever mental health law in 2012; Indonesia significantly modernised its legislation in 2014 and India adopted its first mental health policy the same year. Meanwhile, at the international level, APEC and ASEAN have also begun to engage with the issue.