Healthy returns – WHO shows huge potential returns with right health investments in low income countries

30 May 2018 --- A new World Health Organization (WHO) report has pointed to huge potential economic and health returns as a result of measures to prevent noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in low and lower-middle-income countries. A US$1.27 investment of per person per year in these countries will save 8.2 million lives and generate US$350 billion by 2030 thanks to averted health costs and increased productivity, according to the Saving lives, spending less report. Notably, the report states that for each US$1 spent on policies to reduce unhealthy diets – including reformulation of food and front-of-label packaging – could lead to a return of US$12.82 in health impact and economic impact returns.

Premature deaths caused by NCDs currently disproportionately affect low and lower-middle-income countries, the WHO notes. Almost half (7.2 million) of the 15 million people who die globally every year between the age of 30 and 70 years are from the world’s poorest countries. However, global financing for NCDs is severely limited, receiving less than 2 percent of all health funding. 

In the report, the health body notes that “a strategic response to NCDs reveals the financing needs and returns on investment of the WHO cost-effective and feasible ‘Best Buy’ policies to protect people from NCDs, the world’s leading causes of ill health and death.” 

If all countries use these interventions, the world would likely move significantly closer to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 to reduce premature death from NCDs by one-third by 2030.

The Best Buys cover six policy areas: tobacco use; harmful use of alcohol; unhealthy diet; physical inactivity; the management of cardiovascular disease and diabetes; and the management of cancer. Within these areas there are 16 targeted interventions. According to the WHO, these interventions show the best evidence of generating impact and value – for health, the economy and other areas of national development. 

Countries can select a single intervention based on their need and build on this with additional interventions. As the number of interventions that a country implements increases, there is a compound increase in benefits.   

The report’s economic analysis calculates the health impact and economic returns that could be achieved by low and lower-middle-income countries adopting and ambitiously scaling-up the Best Buy interventions. Using the methodology of the WHO Sustainable Development Goal Health Price Tag, the cost of implementation was calculated for 78 low- and lower-middle-income countries.

The cost of implementing the Best Buys was calculated both as an entire package of all 16 interventions, and as individual disease or risk factor-specific packages. The health outcomes (deaths averted, incident cases averted and healthy life years gained) were also calculated following the same methodology. The return on investment for each of these packages was calculated using a peer-reviewed methodology for cardiovascular disease investment, expanding the interventions and number of countries.