Country-Level Decision Making for Control of Chronic Diseases

There is growing recognition that chronic diseases represent a major health threat in low- and middle-income countries, accompanied by significant economic consequences. Yet most governments, global health institutions, and development agencies have largely overlooked chronic diseases when investing in health in developing countries (IOM, 2010). These countries have limited resources and many competing demands, from basic development priorities to a range of important health needs.
Alexandra Beatty R. Country-Level Decision Making for Control of Chronic Diseases. Washington DC: Th National Academies Press; 2012. Available at: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13337
Report
3/04/2012
However, despite these challenges, a recent Institute of Medicine report, Promoting Cardiovascular Health in the Developing World (2010), concluded that not only is it possible to reduce the burden of cardiovascular and related chronic diseases in developing countries but such a reduction will be critical to achieving global health and development goals. To reduce the burden of chronic diseases in these countries, the report concluded that it will be necessary to:
• Improve local data and mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation;
• Build knowledge of effective, affordable, and feasible interventions and programs as well as how to implement these
interventions and programs in the settings where they are needed;
• Align the effort with local characteristics and needs, such as disease burden, priorities, capacity, and resources;
• Recognize the realities of resource constraints and competing priorities that require difficult choices;
• Set clear, measurable goals;
• Build successful collaborations within and beyond the health sector;
• Integrate efforts across chronic diseases with common risk factors; and
• Integrate efforts with existing health and development priorities.
The workshop included two main groups of presentations. In the first, representatives from six economically, demographically, and geographically diverse countries described their experiences, progress, and lessons learned in planning and implementing chronic disease control efforts at the country level, including the availability and gaps in useful, country-level data.
The second consisted of examples of tools, models, and methods to inform possible components of a toolkit that could support countries in their decision making related to chronic diseases. The full workshop agenda can be found in Appendix A.
The final chapter draws together themes from the presentations and discussions throughout the workshop, focusing on the considerations that could be most useful in the development and implementation of a toolkit to support country-level planning for control of chronic diseases…..”
Alexandra Beatty R
Norte América