ABSTRACT
NCD surveillance is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of data to provide appropriate information regarding a country’s NCD disease burden, including risk factors and determinants of NCDs, population groups at risk, morbidity and mortality indicators, including trends over time in order to guide action. NCD surveillance is essential to support the planning, implementation and evaluation of NCD prevention and control efforts, particularly when it is closely integrated with the timely dissemination of these data to those who need to know and act. This chapter describes the main issues around the surveillance of NCDs and their risk factors, including the significance of both crude and age-standardized estimates of incidence and prevalence. Different types of population-based surveys for assessing risk factors in the population are also described, including health examination surveys, household-based surveys, phone and internet-based surveys and surveys based on electronic health records.
