Risk Factors Ranking of Non-Communicable Disease in Different Provinces of Iran Using Multivariate Factor Analysis Methods

Non-communicable diseases are related to the risk factors such as smoking, inappropriate nutrition and lack of physical activity. The purpose of this study was to use factor analysis for obtaining the scale of combined risk factors, to rank the provinces based on it.
The data of this study were included 20 risk factors according to province and sex among 15-64 year-old subjects. This data were extracted from the report of the non-communicable diseases risk factors surveillance of Iran in 2009. We used the principal component method of factor analysis for men and women, separately. Finally we ranked the provinces by calculated scores of the first factor.
Based on the first factor, for men, East Azerbaijan, Qom, Ardebil and Mazandaran provinces had the highest morbidity risk for non-communicable diseases and Sistan and Baluchistan, South Khorasan, Kerman and Hormozgan provinces had the lowest risk, respectively. Also, among women, Mazandaran, Qom, Kermanshah and eastern Azerbaijan provinces had the highest morbidity risk of non-communicable diseases and Sistan and Baluchistan, South Khorasan, Hormozgan provinces had the lowest risk, respectively.
The results showed that factor analysis could show very well the risk of noncommunicable diseases in different provinces of Iran. Based on the results, the provinces which had higher incidence of morbidity of non-communicable diseases need more attention to nutrition and health education.