Challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches

Background: The rising global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) necessitates the institutionalization of surveillance systems to track trends and evaluate interventions. However, NCD surveillance capacities vary across high- and low- and middle-income countries. The objective of the review...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kroll, Mareike, Phalkey, Revati K., Kraas, Frauke
Format: Article
Published: BioMed Central 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33408/
_version_ 1848794624594804736
author Kroll, Mareike
Phalkey, Revati K.
Kraas, Frauke
author_facet Kroll, Mareike
Phalkey, Revati K.
Kraas, Frauke
author_sort Kroll, Mareike
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Background: The rising global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) necessitates the institutionalization of surveillance systems to track trends and evaluate interventions. However, NCD surveillance capacities vary across high- and low- and middle-income countries. The objective of the review was to analyse existing literature with respect to structures of health facility-based NCD surveillance systems and the lessons low- and middle-income countries can learn in setting up and running these systems. Methods: A literature review was conducted using Pub Med, Web of Knowledge and WHOLIS databases to identify citations published in English language between 1993 and 2013. In total, 20 manuscripts met inclusion criteria: 12 studies were analysed in respect to the surveillance approach, eight supporting documents in respect to general and regional challenges in NCD surveillance. Results: Eleven of the 12 studies identified were conducted in high-income countries. Five studies had a single disease focus, three a multiple NCD focus and three covered communicable as well as non-communicable diseases. Nine studies were passive assisted sentinel surveillance systems, of which six focused on the primary care level and three had additional active surveillance components, i.e., population-based surveys. The supporting documents reveal that NCD surveillance is rather limited in most low- and middle-income countries despite the increasing disease burden and its socioeconomic impact. Major barriers include institutional surveillance capacities and hence data availability. Conclusions: The review suggests that given the complex system requirements, multiple surveillance approaches are necessary to collect comprehensive information for effective NCD surveillance. Sentinel augmented facility-based surveillance, preferably supported by population-based surveys, can provide improved evidence and help budget scarce resources. Electronic supplementary material: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2570-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:19:09Z
format Article
id nottingham-33408
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:19:09Z
publishDate 2015
publisher BioMed Central
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-334082020-05-04T17:26:43Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33408/ Challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches Kroll, Mareike Phalkey, Revati K. Kraas, Frauke Background: The rising global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) necessitates the institutionalization of surveillance systems to track trends and evaluate interventions. However, NCD surveillance capacities vary across high- and low- and middle-income countries. The objective of the review was to analyse existing literature with respect to structures of health facility-based NCD surveillance systems and the lessons low- and middle-income countries can learn in setting up and running these systems. Methods: A literature review was conducted using Pub Med, Web of Knowledge and WHOLIS databases to identify citations published in English language between 1993 and 2013. In total, 20 manuscripts met inclusion criteria: 12 studies were analysed in respect to the surveillance approach, eight supporting documents in respect to general and regional challenges in NCD surveillance. Results: Eleven of the 12 studies identified were conducted in high-income countries. Five studies had a single disease focus, three a multiple NCD focus and three covered communicable as well as non-communicable diseases. Nine studies were passive assisted sentinel surveillance systems, of which six focused on the primary care level and three had additional active surveillance components, i.e., population-based surveys. The supporting documents reveal that NCD surveillance is rather limited in most low- and middle-income countries despite the increasing disease burden and its socioeconomic impact. Major barriers include institutional surveillance capacities and hence data availability. Conclusions: The review suggests that given the complex system requirements, multiple surveillance approaches are necessary to collect comprehensive information for effective NCD surveillance. Sentinel augmented facility-based surveillance, preferably supported by population-based surveys, can provide improved evidence and help budget scarce resources. Electronic supplementary material: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2570-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2015-12-16 Article PeerReviewed Kroll, Mareike, Phalkey, Revati K. and Kraas, Frauke (2015) Challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches. BMC Public Health, 15 . p. 1243. ISSN 1471-2458 Disease Surveillance Facility-based Surveillance Sentinel Surveillance Non-communicable Diseases Literature Review Low- and Middle-income Countries High-income Countries http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-2570-z doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2570-z doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2570-z
spellingShingle Disease Surveillance
Facility-based Surveillance
Sentinel Surveillance
Non-communicable Diseases
Literature Review
Low- and Middle-income Countries
High-income Countries
Kroll, Mareike
Phalkey, Revati K.
Kraas, Frauke
Challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches
title Challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches
title_full Challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches
title_fullStr Challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches
title_full_unstemmed Challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches
title_short Challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches
title_sort challenges to the surveillance of non-communicable diseases – a review of selected approaches
topic Disease Surveillance
Facility-based Surveillance
Sentinel Surveillance
Non-communicable Diseases
Literature Review
Low- and Middle-income Countries
High-income Countries
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33408/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33408/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33408/