Existing NCD Monitoring and Surveillance Systems and its adaptability to Fiji’s context: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: The United Nations high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases passed a political declaration on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) prevention and control in 2011, emphasizing the great need for NCD surveillance including in Low-to-Middle-Income-Countries (LMICs). Method: A review of literature was conducted and set for full text citations published in English dated 1 January, 2007 to 31 August 2019. MESH terms or key words were selected from the following groups of generic terms: the following words “Health surveillance systems” and “NCD monitoring and surveillance system”. The literatures were tabulated according to the authors, date that was published and which journal, the title of the study, the surveillance design and their recommendations. The 13 articles that were identified, only one was conducted in a developing country while the rest were conducted in high income countries. Results: 60% of the NCD surveillace system reviewed use passive surveillance, 30% uses passive assisted sentinel surveillance and 10% use passive assited spatial surveillance. Based on countries surveillance system there was an equal distribution on involvement in policy development (33%), behavioural risk associated aggregates (33%) and intergrated health information System (33%).Through intense review, passive assisted sentinel surveillance was mostly practiced and the use of spatial surveillace in this context for interregional comparisons of specified diseases. Conclusion: There was less evidence on surveillance in LMIC but the following surveillance systems were identified as essential for Fiji’s proposed NCD surveillance system. This study suggest that a probable surveillance system that can be adopted by Fiji is a passive assisted sentinel surveillance system enhanced with Spatial data. Further consultation and a feasibility study can be proposed as a way forward for this study findings.