By Robert A. Emmanuel
The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Statistical Division and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will be launching a national population survey to assess noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors, called the STEPS Survey.
The STEPS Survey, officially entitled the PAHO/STEPS Wise Approach to NCD surveillance 2023, will be targeting households to gather information on the risk factors through face-to-face interviews (Step 1); simple physical measurements (Step 2); and collection of urine and blood samples for biochemical analysis (Step 3).
According to PAHO representatives Dr Roberta Caixeta and Dr Taraleen Malcolm, the four-day training would allow government officials to better develop and implement policies and strategies to tackle the burden of Non-Communicable Diseases.
“Understanding those risk factors and understanding the prevalence of things like obesity will help us then to know the effectiveness of some of the policies and interventions that are being implemented in the country, but they also give us a baseline so that when other policies are implemented, we are able to see how effective those policies are,” Dr Malcolm said.
The objectives of the survey are to assess the lifestyle and health risks of the population, give insight into the demographic and socio-economic distribution of chronic diseases amongst the population, including mental health and gain insight in the population use of preventive health practices and services in Antigua and Barbuda.
“We are going to analyse and assess what is the status of health, the polices needed and how the policies have been implemented in Antigua and Barbuda and plan ahead on strategies and polices that will improve the health of the population,” Dr Caixeta noted.
Interviewers and STEP 3 data collectors will conduct household interviews and rapid blood tests among selected adults between the ages of 18 and 69 years.
She also encouraged Antiguans and Barbudans to “open their doors and participate” in this survey.
“This is an effort that has been done with the Ministry of Health with our support to really make the health of Antigua and Barbuda better,” she said.
Both representatives highlighted the importance of participant confidentiality as it relates to the survey.
“We have been very careful, seeking ethics review and approval to ensure that all the participants will be protected when they provide us information that will be used in policies that we want to implement,” Dr Caixeta explained.
Members of the Statistics Division, Ministry of Health and other participants will be participating in the training sessions over the next few days.