Risk Factors for Non-Communicable Diseases

• Risk factors are things that are linked to an increase in the likelihood that a person will develop a certain disease during their lifetime. They don't guarantee that someone will get the disease.
• Risk factors are often aspects of a person's lifestyle (e.g. how much exercise they do). They can also be the presence of certain substances in the environment (e.g. air pollution) or substances in your body (e.g. asbestos fibres - asbestos was a material used in buildings until it was realised that the fibres could build up in your airways and cause diseases such as cancer later in life).
• Many non-communicable diseases are caused by several different risk factors interacting with each other rather than one factor alone.
• Lifestyle factors can have different impacts locally, nationally and globally. E.g. In developed countries, non-communicable diseases are more common as people generally have a higher income and can buy high-fat food. Nationally, people from deprived areas are more likely to smoke, have a poor diet and not exercise. This means the incidence of cardiovascular disease, obesity and Type 2 diabetes is higher in those areas. Your individual choices affect the local incidence of disease.
• Some risk factors are able to directly cause a disease. For example:

  1. Smoking has been proven to directly cause cardiovascular disease, lung disease and lung cancer. It damages the walls of arteries and the cells in the lining of the lungs.
  2. Its thought that obesity can directly cause Type 2 diabetes by making the body less sensitive or resistant to insulin, meaning that it struggles to control the concentration of glucose in the blood.
• Some risk factors are able to directly cause a disease. For example: Cancer can be directly cause by exposure to certain substances or radiation. Things that cause cancer are known as carcinogens. Ionising radiation (e.g. from X-rays) is an example of a carcinogen.
• Risk factors are identified by scientists looking for correlations in data, and correlation doesn't always equal cause. Some risk factors aren't capable of directly causing a disease. For example, a lack of exercise and a high fat diet are heavily linked to an increased chance of cardiovascular disease, but they can't cause the disease directly. It's the resulting high blood pressure and high LDL cholesterol levels that can actually cause it.