Research pointing at the role of environmental and lifestyle risk factors towards increased burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) is fragmented in consideration of the large span of risk factors. Some of them are largely studied, e.g. air pollution, tobacco smoking, alcohol use, whereas other are less extensively studied: for example, exposure to noise, or some dietary risks (e.g. low consumption of nuts and seeds, low intake of omega-3 fatty acids). Moreover, many analyses focus on one-to-one associations between risk factors and NCDs. The overall effect of this is that a global picture of the effects of environmental and lifestyle risk factors is difficult to gather, with very few exceptions (e.g. smoking or high blood pressure). In addition to this, the “targets” of risk factors are not evenly addressed, and include risk factors for disease onset, risk factors for mortality and risk factors for disease progression (each with its own definition of progression).

This collection is aimed to provide an overview on the main risk factors for NCDs. Submissions are mostly welcome in the format of literature reviews, either systematic or narrative, that provide an appreciation of the impact that risk factors have on mortality and morbidity of selected NCDs. Contribution might be either disease-oriented (e.g. exploring the risk factors for stroke), or risk oriented (e.g. exploring which diseases are associated to low physical activity).

The specific requirements are:

1) to compare the results gathered in the contribution against the most recent estimates that can be produced by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, thus showing what the manuscript adds to the state of knowledge in a GBD perspective;

2) to specifically link the results to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus showing the potential impact of implementing policies towards risk reduction or elimination in light of global health improvement.