Tale of Endurance

Around 99 percent of the survey population in Bangladesh has at least one risk factor for developing NCDs, reveals the recently-concluded non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factor survey 2010. This survey is the first-ever nationally representative survey that provides essential information on key indicators of NCD risk factors and creates an opportunity for policy makers, programme managers, and researchers to adopt innovative interventions.

The fact sheet pointed that hardly anyone in the population is without a risk factor.  Around 98.7 percent of the survey population has at least one risk factor of NCD, around 77% had two or more risk factors and around 28.3% had 3 or more risk factors. More women were found to have three or more risk factors than men. The report shows no clear differential in risk trend with varying levels of wealth.

This survey was conducted by the Bangladesh Society of Medicine (BSM) under supervision of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) with technical and financial support from World Health Organization (WHO) Bangladesh country office. The honorable Minister for the Ministry of Health and Family welfare, Professor Dr A F M Ruhal Haque, in presence of WHO Representative to Bangladesh, Dr Arun Bhadra Thapa and former Advisor to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh; Brig. General MA Malik, unveiled the fact sheet of the survey in a dissemination workshop held on 7th August 2011 at Dhaka. Honorable minister Prof. Haque stressed on the issue of the need for an orchestrated action against the killer diseases and asked all concerned for enthusiastic participation. The web version of the fact sheet was also launched by the honorable minister on this eve. The event was chaired by Prof (Dr) Khondhaker Mohammad Shefayetullah, The Director General of the Directorate general of Health Services of Bangladesh. Chief investigator of the Survey, Professor Dr Mujibur Rahman, and an eminent researcher of the team, Professor Ridwanur Rahman, presented the findings of the study.

NCDs are becoming increasingly common worldwide because of increasing longevity and high prevalence of contributing factors such as tobacco use, obesity, physical inactivity and unhealthy diets. Although NCDs has been considered as a problem of the affluent, counter to the myth is, some 80% of this burden is borne by low to middle income countries like Bangladesh. Even more worrying is the dangerous lack of awareness of this threat of NCDs to global health. To combat this enormous threat, information dissemination on all aspects of NCDs and their risk factors, is a vital element in the Government’s strategy to deal with NCDs in Bangladesh. The NCD Risk Factor survey in Bangladesh-2010 will serve as an important source of data in this regard.