About the Authors

Gretchen Stevens

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: stevensg@who.int

Affiliations Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America , Harvard Initiative for Global Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America , World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Rodrigo H Dias

Affiliation Harvard Initiative for Global Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Kevin J. A Thomas

Affiliation Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Juan A Rivera

Affiliation Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Mexico

Natalie Carvalho

Affiliation Harvard Initiative for Global Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Simón Barquera

Affiliation Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Mexico

Kenneth Hill

Affiliation Harvard Initiative for Global Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Majid Ezzati

Affiliations Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America , Harvard Initiative for Global Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

GS and ME designed and coordinated the study. KJAT and KH conducted analysis of all-cause mortality. GS, RHD, and NC conducted the analyses of causes of death and disease burden. JAR and SB gathered, and GS analyzed, risk factor exposure data. GS conducted comparative risk assessment analysis. GS and ME wrote the paper with input from other authors. ME oversaw the research and acts as the paper's guarantor.