Saudi Arabia is at an early stage of its demographic transition to an older population, and so it has an opportunity to prepare early for a rising noncommunicable disease (NCD) epidemic. NCDs, such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases and their associated behavioral risk factors—tobacco use, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity—are an increasing economic and public health challenge. An aging population is expected to significantly increase the prevalence of NCDs and the related demand for costlier health care services. Interventions and reforms to prevent NCDs, and to minimize current and future treatment costs, are needed now, particularly if Saudi Arabia is to achieve the Vision 2030 goal of increasing life expectancy from 75 years in 2021 to 80 years in 2030. To support strategic planning efforts, Noncommunicable Diseases in Saudi Arabia: Toward Effective Interventions for Prevention assesses the latest evidence on the prevalence and risk factors; explores the health and economic burden of NCDs, as well as their impact on human capital; and identifies key gaps in prevention efforts and ways to address these gaps. The book discusses the need for a national master plan for NCD prevention—one that is selective and targeted, with a particular focus on improving the implementation of cost-effective interventions and achieving results. To be successful, the national master plan will need to take into account the roles of the different stakeholders and their likely responsibilities in implementation. The book will be of interest to all those who work on NCDs in Saudi Arabia and beyond.

This handbook examines health and medical care in the Arab world from a systems biology approach. It features comprehensive coverage that includes details of key social, environmental, and cultural determinants. In addition, the contributors also investigate the developed infrastructure that manages and delivers health care and medical solutions throughout the region.More than 25 sections consider all aspects of health, from cancer to hormone replacement therapy, from the use of medications to vitamin deficiency in emergency medical care. Chapters highlight essential areas in the wellbeing and care of this population. These topics include women’s health care, displaced and refugee women’s health needs, childhood health, social and environmental causes of disease, health systems and health management, and a wide range of diseases of various body systems. This resource also explores issues related to access and barriers to health delivery throughout the region.Health in the Arab world is complex and rapidly changing. The health burden in the region is distributed unevenly based on gender, location, as well as other factors. In addition, crises such as armed conflicts and an expanding migrant population place additional stress on systems and providers at all levels. This timely resource will help readers better understand all these major issues and more. It will serve as an ideal guide for researchers in various biological disciplines, public health, and regulatory agencies.

Have gaps in health outcomes between the poor and better off grown? Are they larger in one country than another? Are health sector subsidies more equally distributed in some countries than others? Are health care payments more progressive in one health care financing system than another? What are catastrophic payments and how can they be measured? How far do health care payments impoverish households? Answering questions such as these requires quantitative analysis. This in turn depends on a clear understanding of how to measure key variables in the analysis, such as health outcomes, health expenditures, need, and living standards. It also requires set quantitative methods for measuring inequality and inequity, progressivity, catastrophic expenditures, poverty impact, and so on. This book provides an overview of the key issues that arise in the measurement of health variables and living standards, outlines and explains essential tools and methods for distributional analysis, and, using worked examples, shows how these tools and methods can be applied in the health sector. The book seeks to provide the reader with both a solid grasp of the principles underpinning distributional analysis, while at the same time offering hands-on guidance on how to move from principles to practice.

This book brings together two important discussions in public health in developing countries: an understanding of the burden of disease, health equity and social determinants of health; and biomathematical models, epidemiological studies and estimation of the direct and indirect cost of disease. The empirical chapters in the first part discuss aspects of disease prevention and health promotion in developing countries, with a particular focus on countries that are part of the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region and the African Region. Health equity and social determinants of health constitute a cornerstone of this book, with the widespread recognition that addressing the social determinants of health is crucial not only for improving general health but importantly for reducing unfair and remediable health inequalities. Using mathematical models, epidemiological studies and statistical estimation of costs, the second part of this book shows the opportunities that exist for developing countries to prevent disease and promote health by adopting cost-effective strategies and cost–benefit analyses.

"This report sets out the statistics, evidence and experiences needed to launch a more forceful response to the growing threat posed by noncommunicable diseases. While advice and recommendations are universally relevant, the report gives particular attention to conditions in low- and middle-income countries, which now bear nearly 80% of the burden from diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. The health consequences of the worldwide epidemic of obesity are also addressed. The report takes an analytical approach, using global, regional and country-specific data to document the magnitude of the problem, project future trends, and assess the factors contributing to these trends. As noted, the epidemic of these diseases is being driven by forces now touching every region of the world: demographic aging, rapid unplanned urbanization, and the globalization of unhealthy lifestyles"--Publisher's description.

Public health entails the use of models, technologies, experience and evidence derived through consumer participation, translational research and population sciences to protect and improve the health of the population. Enhancing public health is of significant importance to the development of a nation, particularly for developing countries where the health care system is underdeveloped, fragile or vulnerable.This book examines progress and challenges with regards to public health in developing countries in two parts: Part 1 “General and Crosscutting Issues in Public Health and Case Studies” and Part 2 “Country-Specific Issues in Public Health.” For example, assuring equity for marginalized indigenous groups and other key populations entails the application of transdisciplinary interventions including legislation, advocacy, financing, empowerment and de-stigmatization. The diverse structural, political, economic, technological, geographical and social landscape of developing countries translates to unique public health challenges, infrastructure and implementation trajectories in addressing issues such as vector-borne diseases and intimate partner violence.This volume will be of interest to researchers, health ministry policy makers, public health professionals and non-governmental organizations whose work entails collaborations with public health systems of developing nations and regions.

This volume reviews the public health concerns and challenges specific to the complex Arab world from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Overweight and obesity constitute a major global epidemic that has grown substantially. They are particularly alarming in Saudi Arabia, where more than half of the adult population is overweight and one out of five people are obese. Additionally, the prevalence of all noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)--such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers--has increased substantially in recent decades, and today they are the leading cause of disability and death in the country. While the causes of overweight and obesity are complex and numerous, several innovative and multisectoral evidence-based interventions are emerging globally. Saudi Arabia has already embarked on the design and implementation of several such interventions and is committed to further expanding and scaling up such efforts in order to meet national goals and achieve results. This book builds on this work by laying out the remaining challenges while highlighting the opportunities lying ahead. The book provides new evidence and analysis on obesity in Saudi Arabia in order to support planning efforts on obesity prevention in the country. This includes examining the current prevalence of obesity and its risk factors, estimating the health and economic burden associated with obesity in the country, exploring the relationship between obesity and COVID-19, and identifying existing obesity prevention efforts and ways to enhance their impact based on the latest evidence. Finally, the book explores the use of a food system approach to connect human health and the environment, including through the production of a Saudi-specific Nutrient Profiling Model to help guide nutrition and obesity-related policies.

To provide the tools and knowledge needed in efforts to improve the health of the world's populations, researchers collaborated on the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010. The study produced comprehensive estimates of over 200 diseases and health risk factors in 187 countries over two decades, results that will be used by governments and non-governmental agencies to inform priorities for global health research, policies, and funding. Integrated Meta-Regression Framework for Descriptive Epidemiology is the first book-length treatment of model-based meta-analytic methods for descriptive epidemiology used in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. In addition to collecting the prior work on compartmental modeling of disease, this book significantly extends the model, by formally connecting the system dynamics model of disease progression to a statistical model of epidemiological rates and demonstrates how the two models were combined to allow researchers to integrate relevant data. Practical applications of the model to meta-analysis of more than a dozen different diseases complement the theoretical foundations of the integrative systems modeling of disease in populations. The book concludes with a detailed description of the future directions for research in model-based meta-analysis of descriptive epidemiological data. Abraham Flaxman is assistant professor of global health in the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

Pharmacy Practice in Developing Countries: Achievements and Challenges offers a detailed review of the history and development of pharmacy practice in developing countries across Africa, Asia, and South America. Pharmacy practice varies substantially from country to country due to variations in needs and expectations, culture, challenges, policy, regulations, available resources, and other factors. This book focuses on each country's strengths and achievements, as well as areas of weakness, barriers to improvement and challenges. It sets out to establish a baseline for best practices, taking all of these factors into account and offering solutions and opportunities for the future. This book is a valuable resource for academics, researchers, practicing pharmacists, policy makers, and students involved in pharmacy practice worldwide as it provides lessons learned on a global scale and seeks to advance the pharmacy profession. - Uses the latest research and statistics to document the history and development of pharmacy practice in developing countries - Describes current practice across various pharmacy sectors to supply a valuable comparative analysis across countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America - Highlights areas of achievement, strengths, uniqueness, and future opportunities to provide a basis for learning and improvement - Establishes a baseline for best practices and solutions