Non-communicable diseases and disasters
Citation: Ngaruiya C, Bernstein R, Leff R, et al. Systematic review on chronic non-communicable disease in disaster settings. BMC Public Health. 2022;22(1):1234.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: The authors reported that they had no external funding for this review.
What is this? Evidence of the effect of disasters on non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) may help guide the allocation of resources, policy development and future research.
In this systematic review, the authors searched for publications investigating non-communicable diseases in humanitarian emergencies (including disasters caused by natural hazards, armed conflicts, terrorism and failed states) in LMICs. They restricted their searches to articles published in English, Arabic or French, and did the final search in December 2017. They included 85 studies, which were conducted in Africa (6 studies), the Americas (1), Eastern Mediterranean Region (56), European Region (18), South-East Asia Region (7) and the Western Pacific Region (13).
What was found: Non-communicable diseases are a significant burden for populations affected by disasters. Diabetes was the most commonly studied (and mainly in the Eastern Mediterranean Region), while research relevant to chronic respiratory diseases and cancer was lacking.
Commonly reported barriers to healthcare access for people with non-communicable diseases were low levels of education, financial difficulties, displacement, illiteracy, lack of access to medications, affordability of treatment and monitoring devices, and lack of a de-centralized healthcare infrastructure.
Refugee status was a risk factor for being diagnosed with a non-communicable disease and for worse outcomes, with women and older people being disproportionally affected.
Disaster-related contributors to non-communicable diseases included disaster-related psychologic and physical stressors, malnutrition and food insecurity and environmental exposure to disaster- and war-related toxins.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that attention to vulnerable populations, such as women and refugees, should be a priority, and that more research is needed that addresses contributing factors, interventions and means of managing non-communicable diseases during humanitarian emergencies in LMICs.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of place of residence, gender, sex and personal characteristics (refugee status).
This summary was prepared by Catherine Haynes, checked by Yasmeen Saeed and Cristián Mansilla, and finalized by Mike Clarke.