The World Health Organization STEPwise Approach to Noncommunicable Disease Risk-Factor Surveillance: Methods,...

Area of Science:

• Global health surveillance
• Noncommunicable disease (NCD) epidemiology
• Public health monitoring

Background:

• Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) represent a significant global health challenge.
• Effective surveillance is crucial for understanding NCD burden and risk factors.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) developed the STEPwise approach to NCD risk factor surveillance (STEPS).

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline the framework and methods of the WHO STEPS surveillance.
• To describe the development and current status of STEPS.
• To discuss the strengths, limitations, and future directions of STEPS.

Main Methods:

• STEPS is a standardized yet flexible WHO-developed framework.
• It monitors key NCD risk factors via questionnaires, physical exams, and biochemical measurements.
• Surveys are typically household-based, interviewer-administered, with approximately 5000 participants.

Main Results:

• STEPS data collection is complete or ongoing in 122 countries across all 6 WHO regions.
• STEPS-aligned surveys have also contributed to the global data pool.

Conclusions:

• STEPS data actively inform national NCD policies and risk-factor trend analysis.
• Future efforts focus on strengthening the data-to-action linkage at the country level.
• Enhancing STEPS capacity for continuous global risk-factor surveillance is a priority.