CONTENTS -- MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL -- OVERVIEW -- Introduction -- Enemies of health, allies of poverty -- Recommended actions -- Summary of chapters -- CHAPTER 1 PROTECTING THE PEOPLE -- Reducing the risks -- The risk transition -- CHAPTER 2 DEFINING AND ASSESSING RISKS TO HEALTH -- What are risks to health? -- Why focus on risks to health? -- Development of risk assessment -- Key goals of global risk assessment -- Standardized comparisons and common outcome measures -- Assessing protective as well as hazardous factors -- Including proximal and distal causes -- Assessing population-wide risks as well as high-risk individuals -- Including risks that act together to cause disease -- Using best available evidence to assess certain and probable risks to health -- Assessing avoidable as well as attributable burden -- Overview of risk assessment methods -- Choosing and defining risks to health -- Estimating current risk factor levels and choosing counterfactuals -- Estimating current and future disease and injury burden -- Estimating risk factor-burden relationships -- Estimates of avoidable burden -- Estimating the joint effects of multiple risks -- Estimates of uncertainty -- CHAPTER 3 PERCEIVING RISKS -- Changing perceptions of risk -- Questioning the science in risk assessment -- Emerging importance of risk perceptions -- Risk perceptions -- Defining and describing risks to health -- Influences on risk perceptions -- Framing the information on risks -- Social and cultural interpretations of risk -- Perceptions of health risks in developing countries -- Importance of risk communications -- Influence of special interest groups on risk perceptions -- Importance of mass media in risk perceptions -- Importance of perceptions in successful risk prevention -- CHAPTER 4 QUANTIFYING SELECTED MAJOR RISKS TO HEALTH.

Risks to health and socioeconomic status -- Rates of poverty across the world -- Relationships between risk factor levels and poverty -- Potential impact on risk factor levels of shifting poverty distributions -- Burden of disease and injury attributable to selected risk factors -- Childhood and maternal undernutrition -- Underweight -- Iodine deficiency -- Iron deficiency -- Vitamin A deficiency -- Zinc deficiency -- Lack of breastfeeding -- Other diet-related risk factors and physical inactivity -- High blood pressure -- High cholesterol -- Obesity, overweight and high body mass -- Low fruit and vegetable intake -- Physical inactivity -- Sexual and reproductive health -- Unsafe sex -- Lack of contraception -- Addictive substances -- Smoking and oral tobacco use -- Alcohol use -- Illicit drug use -- Environmental risks -- Unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene -- Urban air pollution -- Indoor smoke from solid fuels -- Lead exposure -- Climate change -- Other environmental risks to health -- Selected occupational risks -- Work-related risk factors for injuries -- Work-related carcinogens -- Work-related airborne particulates -- Work-related ergonomic stressors -- Work-related noise -- Other risks to health -- Unsafe health care practices -- Abuse and violence -- Global patterns of risks to health -- Putting it all together - what is possible? -- Estimates of the joint effects of selected risk factors -- Estimates of avoidable burden -- The need for cost-effectiveness analyses -- CHAPTER 5 SOME STRATEGIES TO REDUCE RISK -- From health risks to policy -- What strategies can reduce risks to health? -- Risk reduction and behaviour -- Individual-based versus population approaches to risk reduction -- The role of government and legislation -- Different ways of attaining the same goal -- Technical considerations for cost-effectiveness analysis.

Choosing interventions to reduce specific risks -- Childhood undernutrition -- Blood pressure and cholesterol -- Sexual and reproductive health -- Addictive substances -- Environmental risks -- Health practices -- Combining risk reduction strategies -- Policy implications -- CHAPTER 6 STRENGTHENING RISK PREVENTION POLICIES -- Choosing priority strategies for risk prevention -- Population-based interventions or high-risk individual targets? -- Distal or proximal risks to health? -- Primary or secondary prevention? -- Managing the risk prevention process -- Identifying priority risk factors for prevention -- Assessment and management of highly uncertain risks -- Ethical considerations in risk prevention -- Risk communications and the role of governments -- Strengthening the scientific evidence base -- Urgent need for international action -- CHAPTER 7 PREVENTING RISKS AND TAKING ACTION -- Focusing on prevention means focusing on risks -- The world faces some common, large and certain risks to health -- Effective and affordable preventive interventions are available -- Narrowing the gap between potential and actual benefit: a key research priority -- Population-wide prevention strategies: key to risk reduction -- Government responsibility for health -- Reducing major risks to health will promote sustainable development -- Reducing major risks to health can reduce inequities in society -- Governments need to prioritize and focus on the most important risks -- Exercising stewardship means fulfilling the government's responsibility to protect its citizens -- Recommended actions -- Reducing risks, promoting healthy life -- STATISTICAL ANNEX -- Explanatory Notes -- Annex Table 1 Basic indicators for all Member States -- Annex Table 2 Deaths by cause, sex and mortality stratum in WHO Regions, estimates for 2001.

Annex Table 3 Burden of disease in DALYs by cause, sex and mortality stratum in WHO Regions, estimates for 2001 -- Annex Table 4 Healthy life expectancy (HALE) in all Member States, estimates for 2000 and 2001 -- Annex Table 5 Selected National Health Accounts indicators for all Member States, estimates for 1995 to 2000 -- Annex Table 6 Summary prevalence of selected risk factors by subregion, 2000 -- Annex Table 7 Selected population attributable fractions by risk factor, sex and level of development (% DALYs for each cause), 2000 -- Annex Table 8 Distribution of attributable mortality and DALYs by risk factor, age and sex, 2000 -- Annex Table 9 Attributable mortality by risk factor, level of development and sex, 2000 -- Annex Table 10 Attributable DALYs by risk factor, level of development and sex, 2000 -- Annex Table 11 Attributable mortality by risk factor, sex and mortality stratum in WHO Regions, 2000 -- Annex Table 12 Attributable DALYs by risk factor, sex and mortality stratum in WHO Regions, 2000 -- Annex Table 13 Attributable years of life lost (YLL) by risk factor, sex and mortality stratum in WHO Regions, 2000 -- Annex Table 14 Major burden of disease - leading 10 selected risk factors and leading 10 diseases and injuries, high mortality developing countries, 2000 -- Annex Table 15 Major burden of disease - leading 10 selected risk factors and leading 10 diseases and injuries, low mortality developing countries, 2000 -- Annex Table 16 Major burden of disease - leading 10 selected risk factors and leading 10 diseases and injuries, developed countries, 2000 -- LIST OF MEMBER STATES BY WHO REGION AND MORTALITY STRATUM -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.