Health-related Sustainable Development Goals: countdown on alcohol use, smoking prevalence, child overweight and suicide mortality.

Danielle Jansen,Dineke Zeegers Paget,Jutta Lindert,Luis Saboga-Nunes,Maaike Droogers,Marie Guichardon,Mathilda Rudén

doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckaa027

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of goals that aspire to ‘leave no one behind’, adopted by all members of the United Nations and to be achieved by 2030. Now, four years after the SDGs entered into force, we examine the progress towards the health-related SDGs in the European region. In this region, least progress is made towards the targets set for alcohol consumption, smoking prevalence, child overweight, and suicide mortality. For each of these challenges we take stock of current policies, continuing challenges, and ways forward. Written from the perspective of European Public Health Association (EUPHA) we emphasize the potential contribution of civil society organizations in attaining the health-related SDGs.

Highlights

Many countries are failing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed by all members of the United Nations and which came into force on 1 January 2016
We answer this question by examining the European data from Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study, which gives a score for how well each country is progressing towards the health-related indicators.[1]
We present the four lowest scoring indicators by providing a short description of the issue, including current policy frameworks and initiatives in Europe

Summary

Introduction

Many countries are failing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed by all members of the United Nations and which came into force on 1 January 2016. The Goals cover the major issues confronting humanity and the planet itself and include targets to be met by 2030 Progress towards these targets is monitored using 232 indicators, of which 52 can be related to our health. An examination of the European data extracted from the GBD Study, which projected attainment on the basis of past trends of the health-related indicators in 195 countries from 1990 to 2017, shows that Europe is progressing well overall towards the healthrelated SDGs, compared to other regions (with an average score of 76.9 out of 100).[1] In part, this is because some of the indicators relate to diseases that are rarely found in Europe or issues that have long been addressed, such as malaria incidence, proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel, and prevalence of neglected tropical diseases. The lowest scoring health-related indicators in Europe are: alcohol consumption, smoking prevalence, child overweight and suicide mortality (see table 1)

No safe level of alcohol consumption

Smoking is still a public health issue

Overweight in children

Findings

Discussion