A renewed call for transdisciplinary action on NCDs
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(2020) 20:22
EDITORIAL
Open Access
A renewed call for transdisciplinary action on NCDs Brigit Toebes1*, Marlies Hesselman2, Jochen O. Mierau3 and Jitse P. van Dijk4
Abstract Notwithstanding COVID-19, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) will be the leading cause of death in every region in the world by 2030. This contribution, which forms an introduction to our collection of articles in this journal, identifies elements for a transdisciplinary research agenda between law, public health, health economics and international relations aimed at designing concrete interventions to curb the NCD pandemic, both globally and domestically.
Introduction Three years ago we called in this journal for progress on an interdisciplinary research agenda for law and policy interventions to cope with curbing the non-communicable disease (NCD) pandemic [1]. Specifically, we argued in favour of an interaction between law, public health, health economics and international relations aimed at designing concrete interventions to curb the NCD pandemic, at national and international level. By 2030, NCDs will be the leading cause of death in every region in the world [2]. Much of the global NCD burden (40%) is linked to four “modifiable behavioral risk factors” that affect many countries: tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol [2]. In this context, there is an association between socio-economic inequalities, NCDs and these risk factors for NCDs [3]. The scale of the problem makes NCDs a pandemic phenomenon that requires a powerful international and domestic response. Researchers from various disciplinary angles have engaged with NCDs and made a meaningful contribution to the development of effective NCD laws and policies * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Global Health Law Groningen Research Centre, Department of Transboundary Legal Studies, Department of International Law, Faculty of Law, Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health, University of Groningen, PO Box 716, 9712 EK Groningen, the Netherlands Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
[4–7]. However, we observe that interdisciplinary research geared at law and policy-making does not always receive the support and outreach it deserves. Specifically, many more efforts and resources should be allocated to interdisciplinary research endeavours, with implications for law and policy-making, which, given the magnitude and complexity of the problem, deserve more attention. In our Debate piece published in 2017 in this journal we identified a number of gaps in current research and called for an interdisciplinary research agenda between law and other disciplines aimed at designing concrete proposals for laws and policies to curb the NCD pandemic, both globally and domestically [1]. In a subsequent call for papers we invited scholars from various health-related disciplines to submit a paper focusing on the identification of this research agenda with the aim of identifying concrete solutions to the NCD pandemic. The result of th
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