Thursday, November 3, 2011

Joint Efforts for NCDs Control

To lessen the impact of NCDs on individuals and the society, a comprehensive approach is needed. It requires all sectors, including health, finance, education, agriculture, planning and others, to work together to reduce the risks associated with NCDs, as well as to promote interventions to prevent and control them.

An important way to reduce NCDs is to focus on efforts to reduce the risk factors associated with these diseases. The low-cost solutions to NCDs include efforts to reduce the common modifiable risk factors (mainly tobacco use, unhealthy diet and lack of physical inactivity, and the harmful use of alcohol).

Another important way to reduce NCDs is primary health-care approach to strengthen early detection and timely treatment. Intervention for early diagnosis is an excellent economic investment because, if applied to patients early, can reduce the need for more expensive treatment.

For NCD control the greatest impact can be achieved by creating healthy public policies that promote NCD prevention and control, and by reorienting health systems to address the needs of people with such diseases. Lower-income countries generally have lower capacity for the prevention and control of NCDs and such countries need to focus on NCDs in particular.

– A Growing Epidemic

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