NCD Prevention: The Potential of Women and Mobiles

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As a member of the mHealth Alliance team, my current focus is our external events.

Last week at the General Assembly of the United Nations, delegates met for the High Level Meeting on Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs).  Ten years ago, the General Assembly met to discuss AIDS, and this year is only the second time their focus has been on a health issue. 

NCDs represent a major global burden.  According to the World Health Organization’s Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases that was released earlier this year, of the 57 million global deaths in 2008, NCDs were responsible for 36 million (63%).*  These deaths were primarily the result of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases.  While it is popularly believed that NCDs are most common in high-income countries, nearly 80% of NCD deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.** 

In Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the General Assembly, he said, “Treating NCDs can be affordable. But preventing them can cost next to nothing, and even save money.”  Small interventions like exercising, eating right, and having access to quality screening and vaccines to prevent cervical cancer are just a few cost effective ways to reduce the NCD disease burden. 

While prevention can be inexpensive, due to low socio-economic and political status, women are highly susceptible to NCD-related risk factors such as tobacco use and obesity.  Women also face a significant number of hurdles to access to prevention and treatment resources.  Social status, poverty, cost, lack of transportation, and family responsibilities are all barriers of access to care. Often, women are unable to advocate for their health and well-being due to gender inequality within the family, and a higher illiteracy rate among women contributes to their inability to access healthcare information. There are also stigmas associated with those who have NCDs.  This stigma can cause many women to keep their illness a secret and not seek treatment.

But what role do mobile phones play in the prevention and management of NCDs?  The President of the 66^th Session of the General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, urged leaders to promote the application of digital technologies in health.  He said, “There is growing evidence that the use of these technologies can be a critical component of some aspects of health.  I fully believe that information and communications technologies can enable countries to meet the 2015 deadline.”

Al-Nasser  added, “Only five years ago, who would have imagined that today a woman in sub-Saharan Africa could use a mobile phone to access health information on bringing her pregnancy safely to term?” However, according to the report Women and Mobile: A Global Opportunity, jointly prepared by GSMA Development Fund, Cherie Blaire Foundation for Women, and Vital Wave Consulting, a woman is 21% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man. This figure increases to 23% if she lives in Africa, 24% if she lives in the Middle East, and 37% if she lives in South Asia. 

By the end of 2011, there will be an estimated 5.5 billion mobile phones globally, and the potential is great for mobile phone technology to tremendously impact NCD’s and women’s health in developing countries.  However, 250 million women around the world have no access to mobile phones and have never used one.  Improving women’s access to mobile technology in tandem with mobile supported NCD programs may play a role in making the affordable interventions supported by the UN a reality.  

*To learn more about the country-level impact of NCDs, read the World Health Organization’s Noncommunicable Diseases Country Profiles 2011 report. 

**Click here to read about the impact NCDs have in low- and middle-income countries.

Photo credit: UN/McKulka