WHO Country Office for India organised a planning meeting of experts on monitoring the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and comorbidities in New Delhi on 19 February 2013. The meeting aimed at ascertaining the challenges and opportunities in monitoring the core nine indicators with voluntary targets and other relevant indicators in the WHO Global Framework for Monitoring the Prevention and Control of NCDs in India.
Currently more than half of all deaths are attributable to NCDs and projections indicate that the percentage of total deaths from NCDs could be almost 75% by 2030. Given this, the day long consultation deliberated on opportunities to strengthen existing national health management information systems and other institution-based data sources in both the public and private sectors to address information gaps on NCDs, risk factors and comorbidities.
The expert group also reviewed how population-based data sources such as civil registration and population surveys address NCDs and their associated risk factors as well as comorbidities, identifying gaps and opportunities in these, and highlighting the need for a robust national risk factor survey. In addition, the experts analyzed how data management, regular compilation and analysis in programme planning and monitoring, and dissemination could be improved in India.
The focus of the deliberations on monitoring was also in keeping with tasks of the National Programme for prevention and control of Cancer, Diabetes, CVDs and Stroke, which, in the 12th Five Year Plan, emphasizes strengthening monitoring, surveillance and research.
This meeting was a first step towards a longer process that will support addressing the critical need of strengthening the national health information system for better addressing NCDs, risk factors and comorbidities in India.
The participants included representatives from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Indian Council of Medical Research , Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Ministry of Home Affairs, National Health Systems Resource Centre, National Centre for Disease Control, Public Health Foundation of India, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank, US CDC, US Embassy and WHO.