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Chronic Disease Prevention and Control:
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Regional Strategy | Resolutions
Chronic noncommunicable diseases (CNCDs)—namely cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes—are the leading causes of premature death and disability in most countries in the Americas, accounting for 60%–70% of all deaths in the Region. These diseases share common risk factors which include tobacco use, physical inactivity, obesity and hypertension (high blood pressure). There is sufficient evidence that CNCDs can be prevented and controlled through changes in lifestyle, public policies and health interventions, and that they require an intersectoral and integrated approach.
PAHO’s strategy to address chronic diseases, endorsed by the ministers of health of the Americas at the 2006 PAHO Directing Council, is described in the publication Regional Strategy on an Integrated Approach to the Prevention and Control of Chronic Diseases Including Diet, Physical Activity, and Health.
The PAHO chronic disease strategy aims to prevent and reduce the burden of chronic diseases and related risk factors in the Americas along four lines of action:
- Policy & Advocacy: To promote effective and evidence-based public policies on chronic disease, their risk factors, and determinants.
- Surveillance: To support the development and strengthening of countries’ capacity for better surveillance of chronic diseases and their risk factors.
- Health Promotion & Disease Prevention: To promote social and economic conditions that address the determinants of chronic diseases; and empower people to increase control over their health and adopt healthy behaviors.
- Chronic Disease Management: To strengthen health system capacity and competencies for the integrated management of chronic diseases and their risk factors, with a focus on quality of care.
The CARMEN network, composed of chronic disease program managers from national ministries of health in the Americas along with partner organizations, is the forum through which the chronic disease Regional Strategy is promoted and implemented.
The Partners' Forum is a PAHO initiative to unite the private sector, civil society, and governments to support the implementation of the chronic disease Regional Strategy in an intersectoral manner, working together to change the root causes and conditions that lead to chronic diseases.
The PAHO Chronic Disease Program is interprogrammatic, spanning a broad range of technical areas, for example:
- CNCDs: cancer & cervical cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, nutrition, obesity, stroke, & common risk factors
- Health promotion, including health promoting schools
- Healthy eating & active living, encompassing lifestyle, eating habits, behaviors, diet/nutrition, obesity, & physical activity
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- Tobacco
- Alcohol
- Gender, encompassing cervical cancer, women's health, & the correlation between alcohol and violence against women)
- Advocacy, including social communication
- Other chronic conditions
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Resolutions
- Regional Strategy and Plan of Action for Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control (PAHO Resolution CD48.R10 2008): English | español
- Regional Strategy on an Integrated Approach to the Prevention and Control of Chronic Diseases Including Diet, Physical Activity, and Health (PAHO Resolution, CD47-17 2006): English | español
Executive Summary: English | español
Abstract: The Strategy is comprehensive, requiring a combination of interventions for the population and individuals. It is integrated, spanning prevention and control strategies focusing on the major chronic diseases and cross-cutting risk factors (especially physical activity, tobacco, and alcohol). Finally, it is intersectoral, because most of the major determinants of the chronic disease burden lie outside the health sector.
- Health Promotion (PAHO Resolution CD47-16, 2006): English | español
- Regional Strategy and Plan of Action on Nutrition in Health and Development, 2006–2015 (PAHO Resolution CD47-18, 2006): English | español
- Cancer Prevention and Control (World Health Assembly Resolution WHA58.22, 2005):
English | español
- Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health (World Health Assembly Resolution WHA57.17, 2004):
English | español
- WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (World Health Assembly Resolution WHA56.1, 2003):
English |
español
- Public Health Response to Chronic Diseases (PAHO Resolution CSP26/15, 2002):
English | español
- Cardiovascular Disease, especially Hypertension (PAHO Resolution CD42.R9, 2000; pp. 16–19): English | español
- Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (World Health Assembly Resolution WHA53.17, 2000):
English | español
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