Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the most prominent cause of adult mortality, killing 38 million people each year and on the rise[1]. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases are responsible for 82% of NCD-related illness and death. These four diseases, along with mental illness, are estimated to cost the developing world $21 trillion over the next two decades.[2] Given the substantial health and economic detriments of NCDs, policy makers, government officials, and enterprises around the globe have begun to focus efforts on better understanding and preventing the proliferation of these diseases. Lifestyle factors, including increased inactivity, poor diet, and alcohol and tobacco consumption are currently the most commonly attributed risk factors of NCDs. With the influx of epidemiological literature linking meat consumption to western disease prevalence, and the World Health Organization (WHO) releasing a statement this year classifying processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen alongside cigarette smoking, this thesis seeks to understand more thoroughly the role of diet, specifically meat consumption, in the incidence of cancer, heart disease and diabetes around the world. This paper analyzes previous epidemiological studies on dietary consumption and disease incidence as well as conducts an empirical analysis of data from the WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to understand the relationship between meat consumption and disease prominence. This paper is the first of its kind to compare country-level data on dietary and lifestyle factors with respective disease incidence and mortality rates in order to observe the impact of country consumption trends on health outcomes. The results of this analysis may provide insight into global economic, health policy and individual-level consumption recommendations in order to mitigate the occurrence of ill-health.

If there is one thing that policy makers at the World Health Organisation (WHO) and residents of the South African township of Langa are likely to agree on, it is that ‘just sitting’ is not good for you. The positions from which they approach this conclusion however differ profoundly. This research investigates different conceptualisations of physical activity, health, and wellbeing, and the implications of these differences for policy on the prevention of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in low and middle income countries, taking South Africa as a case study. With four out of five deaths from diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke now occurring in low and middle income countries, prevention, of what have been termed ‘NCDs’, in these countries is rising rapidly up the global public health agenda. Physical activity is one of the four primary risk factors which have been identified as intervention targets, but there is an acknowledged paucity of research which helps us to understand how physical activity, and inactivity, are conceptualised in low and middle income country contexts. As a result the evidence base for design of physical activity policy interventions to address NCDs is also weak. The global discourse recognises the determinants of health as socially embedded, but struggles with what this means for policy on prevention. This study explores the detail of this social embeddedness by way of ethnographic research into wellbeing, health and physical activity carried out in a South African township, and juxtaposes this with conceptualisation of these same themes emerging from a review of academic and policy-oriented literature on the prevention of NCDs in low and middle income countries. The struggles of local research groups to reconcile the demands made on them from these very different worlds are explored, and strategies for addressing the specifics of NCD prevention without abstracting health from the broader context of the person or society are discussed. The research is theoretically informed by work on wellbeing in developing countries.

Noncommunicable disease are the leading cause of death and disability in the majority of theworld, and particularly for Sweden. Modifiable lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity are main contributors and risk factors to acquiring these diseases. Despite the evidence linking these risk factors to the diseases, thehealthcare sector has often fallen short in implementing preventive strategies due to severalbarriers and factors within this setting. ICT in the health sector, known as eHealth, cancontribute greatly to relieve the burden in the health systems in implementing new prevention strategies, however eHealth has its own set of barriers hindering implementation that delayadoption of such interventions. In the context of Sweden, emphasis has been made to incorporate increase eHealth initiative to reach their Vision 2025. To investigate how implementing eHealth strategies have been experienced in Sweden, this research has conducted a case study on a specific intervention implemented in the Southern Region of Skåne that incorporated an eHealth tool to aid in the intervention called “health discussions with 40-yearolds” aimed to address the NCD burden. A qualitative case study methodology was taken to investigate how was implementing a new eHealth tool within a prevention and screening of NCDs intervention in the healthcare setting experienced by the project implementation team during its pilot phase. Key challenges and factors for implementing the eHealth tool were extracted from the four interviews and reportcollected on the case to increase understanding of how the implementation was experienced by the program implementors. By focusing on the organizational level of the implementation only, the results from this study aimed to provide insights to key aspects in implementing new eHealth tools within interventions in the healthcare settings with similar organizational structures. Results from the qualitative thematic analysis led to a series of categories subcategories and themes to describe the experiences from the interviewees. The theme to describe the overall experiences was labeled positive but demanding, while the theme for challenges was labeled dintricacies of the health system structure, and the theme for factors was eHealth contingent on the human-social interaction. Core components were summarized for future eHealth implementation implications in this setting and/or similar settings. Challenges faced in this case reflect similar challenges in implementing eHealth in Sweden due to the complex fragmented health system structure. Business modeling and agile project management approaches may aid future health organizational settings eHealth implementation process. Future research isrequired to provide clear frameworks that can be applied in more local fragmented healthsystems

Addressing complex global health challenges, including the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), will require change in sectors outside of traditional public health. Contemporary regional trade and investment agreements (RTAs) like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) continue to move further ‘behind-the-border’ into domestic policy space introducing new challenges in the regulation of health risk factors. This dissertation aimed to clarify the pathways through which RTAs influence NCDs, and to explore points along those pathways with the intent of improving the existing evidence base and supporting policy development. This work develops a critical theoretical framework exploring the ideas, institutions, and interests behind trade and investment policy; it also develops a conceptual framework specifying how trade and investment treaty provisions influence NCD rates through the effects of trade and investment on tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and beverage products, as well as access to medicines and the social determinants of health. Using health impact assessment methodology, three analytical components were designed to examine pathways of influence from RTAs to health outcomes as mediated by the interests of transnational corporations (TNCs). The first component explored the influence of industry during the TPP negotiations and how its health-related interests were reflected in the final TPP text. The second component examined the role of trade and investment liberalisation in health-harmful commodity markets, finding a rise in TNC sales after a period of liberalisation. The third component demonstrated how investor rights and investor-state dispute can challenge the state’s right to regulate if it damages the profits of TNCs, which may threaten effective health regulation, and provides opportunities to strengthen the right to regulate. The work in this dissertation provides support for the thesis that trade and investment policies are a fundamental structural determinant of health and well-being, which are highly influenced by TNCs that guide such policies in the interest of maximising their profits and protections, often to the detriment of public policy and population health. This work identifies the need for more robust health impact assessments of RTAs before future agreements are ratified, as well as an imperative to challenge vested interests that entrench neoliberal policy preferences that have hindered sustainable and equitable development.