Reframing non-communicable diseases as socially transmitted conditions.

In a Comment (February, 2017), we argued that action on the conditions currently referred to as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) may be hampered by the inadequacy of their label. We received a remarkable amount of feedback on this suggestion, and in this Comment we synthesise the responses garnered from a Lancet Facebook poll, Correspondence letters, and a related GHD Online discussion. We also propose a new definition based on shared social drivers. The majority of respondents (29 of 47) to the Facebook poll thought that the NCD name should indeed be changed, and almost everyone acknowledged the limitations of the current label. Many NCDs are in fact communicable, and the current anti-definition provides no information about what unites these conditions. This makes it hard for politicians and the general public to grasp the main challenges posed by NCDs: a problem that is exacerbated by the implication that individual (rather than societal) factors are the key determinants. The current misnomer is misleading but not completely useless: it has currency within the global health community and multiple donors, government departments, non-governmental organisations, and academic units use NCD in their own names and programme titles. Then there is the fact that the name itself does not matter at all, as long as the conditions and their drivers are being addressed. Unfortunately our efforts to prevent and control NCDs have been underfunded, misdirected, and underwhelming to date. Most governments focus on individual lifestyle choices, and only a minority of developing countries have implemented WHO “best buys” such as tobacco taxation, salt reduction, and elimination of trans fats. There is a lot to gain by For the GHD Online discussion see https://www.ghdonline.org/ ncd/discussion/lancet-globalhealth-call-to-re-name-ncdsyour-cha/