Countries in the Western Pacific will miss a key UN target to slash premature deaths from lifestyle-related diseases by the end of the decade, the World Health Organization has warned.
Alcohol and tobacco consumption have undermined efforts to reduce deaths by a third by 2030 by making it more difficult to control chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, strokes and heart attacks, the health agency said.
“We anticipate we cannot meet the 2030 deadline,” Dr Kidong Park, a senior official in the WHO Western Pacific region, told a briefing on Thursday, referring to one of the targets set by the sustainable development goals.
“We need to reduce, decrease alcohol consumption. We need more to quit tobacco consumption.”
The diverse WHO Western Pacific region is home to 1.9 billion people across 37 countries, from Australia to Japan, Cambodia to Fiji.
While infectious diseases and injuries were once the biggest driver of illness and fatalities in the region, chronic lifestyle conditions – also called noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – are now behind more than 80 per cent of deaths.
While most of the region is making some progress tackling these killers, premature deaths linked to NCDs actually rose between 2000 and 2019 in some countries including Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands.
Alcohol and tobacco use is a major cause, according to a WHO health statistics report published on Thursday, ahead of a regional conference next week.
While trends vary widely, alcohol consumption has risen by 40 per cent region wide since 2000.
Tobacco use has declined, from 28 per cent of adults in 2000 to 22.5 per cent in 2022, but the UN agency warned this remains higher than the global average. There are also fears about rates of vaping, including among children.
The report added that only Australia, New Zealand and Vanuatu impose taxes at the “best practice” level of 75 per cent of retail prices for both tobacco and alcohol.
Still, other factors are also contributing to the region’s high NCD toll: 245 million people in the region are older than 65, a number that’s set to double by 2050, while air pollution remains far above recommended levels.
Mental health issues have also taking a toll, the WHO said, “with alarmingly high suicide rates” in some countries, “influenced by factors such as stigma, limited access to mental health services and socioeconomic challenges”.
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