Urgent action is needed to address stalled progress on the health-related Sustainable Development Goals

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The WHO is launching the 2023 edition of its annual World Health Statistics report with new figures on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the latest statistics on progress towards the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The report with data up to 2022 highlights a stagnation of health progress in key health indicators in recent years compared to trends observed during 2000-2015. It also alerts us to the growing threat of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and climate change, and calls for a coordinated and strengthened response.

Cost of COVID-19 in lives lost and health progress

The report documents up-to-date statistics on the toll of the pandemic on global health, contributing to the continued decline in progress towards the SDGs. During 2020-2021, COVID-19 resulted in a staggering 336.8 million years of life lost worldwide. This equates to an average of 22 years of life lost for each excess death, abruptly and tragically cutting the lives of millions of people.

Since the year 2000, we have seen significant improvements in maternal and child health with a decrease in deaths by one third and one half, respectively. The incidence of infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria also decreased, along with a lower risk of premature deaths from NCDs and injuries. Together, they contributed to an increase in global life expectancy from 67 years in 2000 to 73 years in 2019.

However, the pandemic has further thrown off many health-related indicators and contributed to inequalities in access to high-quality healthcare, routine immunizations, and financial protection. As a result, the trends of improvement in malaria and tuberculosis have been reversed, and fewer people were being treated for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

“World Health Statistics is WHO’s annual checkup on the state of health in the world. The report sends a clear message about the threat of non-communicable diseases, which are claiming a huge and growing number of lives, livelihoods, health systems, communities, economies and societies,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , WHO Director General. “The report calls for a substantial increase in investments in health and health systems to get back on track towards the Sustainable Development Goals.”

NCDs: a growing threat to the health of future generations

Despite general health progress, the proportion of deaths caused annually by NCDs has steadily increased and now claims almost three quarters of all lives lost each year.

If this trend continues, NCDs are expected to account for about 86% of the 90 million deaths per year by mid-century; consequently, 77 million of these will be due to NCDs, an increase of almost 90% in absolute numbers since 2019.

Stagnant progress demands acceleration

The most recent trends show signs of a slowdown in the annual rate of reduction (ARR) for many indicators. For example, the global maternal mortality ratio must decrease by 11.6% per year between 2021 and 2030 to achieve the SDG target. Similarly, the net reduction in TB incidence from 2015 to 2021 was only a fifth of the way toward the 2025 milestone of the WHO End TB Strategy.

Despite a reduction in exposure to many health risks, including tobacco use, alcohol use, violence, unsafe water and sanitation, and child stunting, progress was inadequate and exposure to some risks, such as air pollution, remain high.

Alarmingly, the prevalence of obesity is rising with no immediate signs of reversal. Additionally, expanded access to essential health services has slowed compared to pre-2015 achievements, along with no significant progress in reducing financial hardship due to health care costs. This drastically limits our ability to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is an important reminder that progress is not linear or guaranteed,” warns Dr. Samira Asma, WHO Assistant Director-General for Data, Analysis and Impact Delivery. “To stay on track towards the 2030 SDG agenda, we must act decisively and collectively to deliver measurable impact in all countries.”

This year’s report includes a dedicated section on climate change and health for the first time, and we anticipate this will become more relevant in future reporting. For this issue and all other areas, timely, reliable, and disaggregated data is critical to tracking progress and improving national and global health policies.

Editor’s note: The World Health Statistics report is the World Health Organization (WHO) annual compilation of the most recent available data on health and health-related indicators.

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