The origins of the 4 × 4 framework for noncommunicable disease at the World Health Organization

Self-Reported Eating Speed Is Associated with Indicators of Obesity in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The increased prevalence of noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases, constitute a significant public health risk and lead to increased morbidity and mortality [69]. The strong interaction between dietary behaviours and noncommunicable diseases has been highlighted in the literature [69,70]. Three studies investigating the relationship between metabolic syndrome and ES were included in the review [25,26].…”

Unequal ecosystems of global health authorial expertise: Decolonising noncommunicable disease

“…The repositioning of NCDs from an inevitable outcome of unhealthy lifestyles in the global north, to a manifestation of and contributor to inequality, poverty and social injustice in the global south represented a turning point in how the disease category was positioned within global health (Schwartz et al 2021).…”

“…This endeavour was made possible by a tranche of key documents, emerging mainly from the World Health Organization (WHO), to a lesser extent the World Bank, and through a number of Lancet series over two decades. While a portion of these have been subject to critical analysis to uncover the origins of the particular formulation of the NCD category used by WHO and others (Schwartz, Shaffer andBukhman 2021, Weisz, Vignola-Gagné andReview 2015), the significance of who wrote them and from where has garnered less attention. This paper therefore brings together two debates within global health -on authorship and the endeavour's geographical asymmetriesthat, together, emerge from and directly feed into the decolonisation agenda.…”

The future of the global noncommunicable disease agenda after Covid-19

“…The case of NCDs is a clear example of the frequent divide between global and domestic health agendas and the cognitive dissonance that often characterises this. The same diseases that are known as “chronic” domestically in the United States or “long term conditions” in the UK are called “noncommunicable” in the global space dominated by actors like the WHO and the World Bank ( Schwartz, Shaffer and Bukhman 2021 ). In the nomenclature brought forth by Covid-19, NCDs are now known by the terms “underlying medical conditions”, “pre-exisiting conditions” or “co-morbidities”, which in the US alone affect an estimated 60% of the population.…”

“…But they also acknowledge that ‘there is a real risk that the impacts of Covid-19 will result in the NCD response sliding backwards and the global goals going unmet’ (2021, 11, emphasis added). Just as NCDs were transformed from a ‘lifestyle’ issue of the Global North to a development issue of the Global South two decades ago ( Schwartz et al 2021 ), advocates now need to adapt and recalibrate their framing strategies once again.…”