These broad global patterns mask enormous regional variation in risks to health. In sub-Saharan Africa, risks such as childhood underweight, household air pollution from solid fuels, and suboptimal breastfeeding continue to cause a disproportionate amount of health burden, despite decreasing. The shift to risk factors for non-communicable disease was clear in east Asia, North Africa and Middle East, and Latin America. This regional heterogeneity underestimates even greater differences in exposure to, and health effects of, risk factors in national and subnational populations. These differences should be further elucidated in country-specific analyses using the framework and methods reported here.
