In the industrialized countries, cardiovascular disease incidence has declined, but less so in the poorer socioeconomic strata. They do also show encouraging evidence that interventions can have a positive impact, sometimes despite disadvantageous circumstances. However, it seems increasingly unlikely that food production will continue to keep up with population growth. It is also unlikely present goals for reducing protein-energy malnutrition prevalence will be reached. The coexistence of diseases of undernutrition and NCDs will have an impact on allocation of resources.
Action needs to be continued and maintained at the international, national and individual level.
Death rate ratios for vegetarians compared to non-vegetarians were calculated for ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, cancers of the stomach, large bowel, lung, breast and prostate, and for all causes of death. All results were adjusted for age, sex and smoking. A random effects model was used to calculate pooled estimates of effect for all studies combined. Non-vegetarians were from a similar background to the vegetarians within each study. After a mean of 10.6 years of follow-up there were 8330 deaths before the age of 90 years, including 2264 deaths from ischaemic heart disease.