Risk Factors in Chronic Diseases – Control with an Active Epidemiological Surveillance System: one step further with the STEPwise model

Abstract

It has long been known that chronic diseases are often the result of prolonged exposure to certain environmental, lifestyle or socio-economic factors. It is also recognized that chronic diseases can be prevented, detected and controlled; but the reality is that the disease profile in a developing country like Colombia demonstrates a large burden of chronic diseases, reflected in most of its communities. This problem is also the result of an erroneous public health approach, focusing on medical treatment for the later stages of the disease, living prevention to a secondary role. At the individual level, a health system like Colombian’s framework do not perform enough work and efforts for early detection and rapid actions to address modifiable risk factors. Individual and population-based measures against chronic disease risk factors are carried out sporadically for some people, but not as a preventive public policy. Therefore, complimenting the need for activities on the determinants of population health, the purpose of this proposal is directed to the management and control of these deficiencies through the implementation of an active surveillance system. Using the World Health Organization step-by-step model as the conceptual framework, this specific surveillance system is established as a new strategy through which health data at the community level can be analyzed, expanded, and integrated into existing general public health surveillance and the infrastructure of the Colombian’s health programs. As a result, this document intends to lay out the foundations for these new strategic tools to inform suitable planning with the adaptation of interventions; aiming at achieving optimal early detection and rapid intervention of risk factors. Closing these gaps should be another step towards reaching a preventive approach to address the enormous burden of chronic diseases for the Colombian population.