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NCDs at a Glance 2025. NCDs surveillance and monitoring: Noncommunicable disease mortality and risk factor prevalence in the Americas

NCDs at a Glance 2025 NCDs surveillance and monitoring: Noncommunicable disease mortality and risk factor prevalence in the Americas
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Overview

Effective surveillance and monitoring of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors are essential for informing evidence-based public health policies, addressing health inequities, and ensuring progress toward global and regional targets. By tracking trends in NCDs, their modifiable risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol, and air pollution, along with biological risk factors such as overweight and obesity, high blood pressure (hypertension), and elevated blood glucose (diabetes), policymakers can identify emerging threats, target vulnerable populations, allocating resources efficiently. Reliable data also enable countries to evaluate interventions, adjust policies, and strengthen health systems to reduce the burden of NCDs.

This brochure presents data on NCD and suicide mortality, along with trends by sex, in the Region of the Americas and 35 Member States of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) from 2000 to 2021. It also highlights progress toward the 2025 global NCD targets.

While the number of NCD-related deaths in the region increased to six million in 2021, the age-standardized NCD mortality rate declined by 16.2%, reflecting the impact of population growth and aging. However, premature NCD mortality—the key indicator for the Global Action Plan for NCD Prevention and Control—declined by only 0.71% annually between 2010 and 2021, falling short of the 1.92% annual reduction required to meet the 2025 target.

Among modifiable risk factors, tobacco use showed the most significant decline from 2000 to 2021, while insufficient physical activity has been on the rise. Metabolic risks, including high fasting blood glucose, overweight, and obesity, exhibited concerning upward trends during this period. Hypertension control remains suboptimal, with only 36.4% of individuals achieving adequate blood pressure levels (≤140/90 mmHg). While ambient air pollution slightly decreased between 2000 and 2019, current levels remain above WHO guideline thresholds.

To achieve global and regional NCD targets and improve population health in the Americas, countries must prioritize cost-effective interventions to reduce NCD mortality and address these persistent challenges.