"Those three big, big diseases are not just going to go away."

Mike Cohen is the head of global health research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was not involved in the research, but says it shows a change taking place worldwide.

"As infectious diseases have been better controlled and people live longer, and as their diets change and lifestyles change, the inevitable consequence in health is, you have to deal much more broadly with hypertension, heart disease, diabetes."

The study found that these kinds of non-communicable diseases caused more than half of the global burden of disease in 2010.

The two biggest killers -- heart disease and stroke -- caused one-fourth of all deaths in 2010. That was up from one-fifth in 1990.

There was a 48 percent increase in the number of deaths from lung cancer, which is commonly caused by smoking tobacco.

The top causes of disability in 2010 were physical conditions like arthritis and back problems, and mental and behavioral problems like depression, anxiety and substance abuse. Harvard University professor Joshua Salomon was a co-author of the disability research.

"I think in general we've been more successful at reducing mortality and less successful at actually addressing chronic disability."