Newcastle University

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) – particularly cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, and cancer – are increasing dramatically in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, a trend evident in low and middle income countries throughout the world.  This trend is placing ever-increasing pressure on health systems in these countries, and impacts greatly on the lives of those who are directly affected by these chronic illnesses.  Unrelenting urbanization and societies with an ageing population profile underlie the rise in NCD.  Decreased physical activity and sedentary lifestyles, coupled with changes in eating habits and a new reliance on processed food, contribute to the growing epidemic of obesity, while tobacco use continues to rise in the region, especially among women.  These major risk factors link social and economic determinants with people’s lifestyles, and have uneven effects within the population, accentuating inequalities in health which mirror wider socio-economic disparities. 

Non-communicable diseases are also expensive to treat and manage, requiring long-term support.  Health services throughout this region face a new challenge coping with the growing burden these diseases impose.  Until recently most of the countries in the region have lacked the organizational capacity, and in many cases the financial capacity, to tackle the increasing burden of NCD.  Initiatives to deal with this burden on health services in the region are now emerging.  But little attention has yet been given to building the region’s own research capability to map and monitor the public health task of managing and improving the nation’s health.  That is the purpose of RESCAP-MED.  It is why we bring together epidemiology with disciplines which address the social and economic causes and consequences of disease: health economics, environmental health, and medical anthropology.  Together these embody what the World Health Organization means by a social model of health.