STEPS survey to estimate NCD risk factors in Tamil Nadu

STEPS survey to estimate NCD risk factors in Tamil Nadu

The Tamil Nadu STEPS Survey-2 to estimate the prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) risk factors has commenced across the State. This, according to public health experts, would help the State chalk out interventions to reduce the burden of NCD risk factors.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the WHO STEPwise approach to NCD risk factor surveillance (STEPS) is a simple, standardised method for collecting, analysing, and disseminating data on key NCD risk factors in countries.

STEPS Survey 2020 indicated a community prevalence of 33.9% for hypertension, 17.6% for diabetes, and control rate for hypertension (7.3%) and diabetes (10.8%) among patients put on treatment in Tamil Nadu, according to a government document.

“A round of Tamil Nadu STEPS survey is being initiated and is planned to be conducted in all the districts of Tamil Nadu to estimate the State-level burden of NCD risk factors. The survey is in its initial phase and we anticipate that completion of the data collection, cleaning, coding and analysis may take a while. The burden estimates obtained from the study will be helpful for planning interventions to reduce the burden of NCD risk factors in the State,” said Archana R, Scientist-E (Medical), Division of NCDs, Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE) that has taken up the survey along with the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) and Preventive Medicine, Government of Tamil Nadu.

T. S. Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said that the survey, which was funded by the World Bank, would collect three sets of data - sociodemographic factors and behavioural risk factors such as tobacco use, food habits and physical activity and biological factors such as blood sugar and pressure levels. It would also assess to what extent control has been achieved.

Manoj Murhekar, director of ICMR-NIE, explained that prevalence of diabetes and hypertension will be the focus areas of STEPS survey, while other risk factors such as obesity and tobacco consumption will also be captured during the survey.

Dr. Murhekar observed that initiatives such as Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam aim at improving both glycemic control and blood pressure control. “We need to see what proportion of people have achieved control of hypertension and what proportion of people have reached control of diabetes. While the survey’s main objective is to estimate the prevalence, the ultimate aim is to assess the control of the two conditions. This will reflect on how good the healthcare services are, and how people take regular treatment,” he said.