Monitoring progress in prevention and control of NCDs
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A national Non-communicable Disease strategy, with targets and indicators, based on the best available local data, and a plan for how to monitor progress, does not necessarily mean that appropriate actions are taken. But it is associated with successful implementation of interventions to prevent and control Non-communicable Diseases.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) collaborates with and builds national capacity in institutions with public health functions in developing strategic national Non-communicable Disease (NCD) plans including targets and indicators, and monitoring systems.
WHO’s global monitoring framework includes nine voluntary targets and 25 indicators on health status, risk factors, and health-system capacity and response. Countries are in addition urged to develop a national NCD strategy including targets and indicators, and a plan to monitor progress.
Countries will face challenges such as data availability, comparability and quality when they develop monitoring procedures. A framework where both mortality and morbidity, and the driving risk factors are taken into account, will be needed. Such a framework is found in the international Global Burden of Disease project, which is supported by NIPH’s Centre for Disease Burden.
NIPH publishes Indicators for non-communicable diseases connected to the national and global strategy for non-communicable diseases. A national cross-institutional NCD indicator group including national NCD research milieus and governmental institutions, led by NIPH, are in charge of this work.
These two examples illustrates NIPH’s experience and expertise in the field of monitoring progress in the prevention and control of NCDs.
