Geographical, gender and age inequalities in non-communicable diseases both at national and provincial levels in Iran

Abstract

Over 80% of deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) occur in low and middle-income countries, indicating an inequality in the health care system around the world. Conducted studies at provincial level in developed countries have shown that mortality rates due to this group of diseases are higher in the populations with lower education, income, and social class. NCDs account for 71.3% of total world deaths in 2016 and 79.2% of total deaths in Iran in the same year. Improving the health of Iranian population and reducing the number of communicable diseases over the past decades have made NCDs as a major health problem in Iran. In this study, we describe the status of most lethal NCDs in the country at national and provincial level. In addition, study on the inequality of deaths due to NCDs at provincial level in Iran showed that there is a considerable difference between different provinces. Furthermore, there is an age inequality so that mortality of main NCDs increased dramatically after the age of 70. Therefore, health policy makers and decision makers should adopt appropriate policies to reduce gender, geographic and age disparities to reduce gender and inter-provincial inequalities in Iran.