Measuring Health System Progress in Reducing Mortality from Noncommunicable Diseases

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Health Policy

Background:

• Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) present a significant and increasing burden in developing nations, exacerbated by the adoption of Western lifestyle factors.
• NCDs compound the existing challenges posed by infectious diseases within the healthcare systems of these countries.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has initiated risk reduction strategies, including a global monitoring framework, but high-level targets lack granular detail for national planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline a roadmap for developing a comprehensive national and regional system for tracking progress towards the WHO's goal of reducing NCD mortality.
• To provide national and regional decision-makers with actionable data for prioritizing interventions and resource allocation to combat NCDs.
• To bridge the gap between high-level global targets and the need for granular, proximal information for effective on-the-ground health planning.

Main Methods:

• The study proposes a framework for developing a comprehensive set of indicators relevant to national contexts.
• It emphasizes the need for actionable data to predict the impact of changes in proximal risk factors on high-level NCD mortality targets.
• The article outlines a roadmap as a first step towards achieving these national-level tracking and prioritization capabilities.

Main Results:

• A roadmap is presented to guide the development of national systems for monitoring NCDs.
• The proposed system aims to enable decision-makers to track progress towards the WHO's 25% reduction in premature NCD mortality by 2025 target.
• The roadmap facilitates the prioritization of resources and interventions based on country-specific NCD burdens and health system capacities.

Conclusions:

• Effective NCD control in developing countries requires national and regional systems that provide granular, actionable data beyond high-level global indicators.
• The proposed roadmap serves as a foundational step for creating such systems, enabling better resource allocation and intervention planning.
• Implementing this framework will support countries in achieving the WHO's global NCD reduction targets by empowering local decision-making.