Learning lessons from operational research in infectious diseases: can the same model be used for noncommunicable diseases in developing countries?

Abstract

About three-quarters of global deaths from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) occur in developing countries. Nearly a third of these deaths occur before the age of 60 years. These deaths are projected to increase, fueled by such factors as urbanization, nutrition transition, lifestyle changes, and aging. Despite this burden, there is a paucity of research on NCDs, due to the higher priority given to infectious disease research. Less than 10% of research on cardiovascular diseases comes from developing countries. This paper assesses what lessons from operational research on infectious diseases could be applied to NCDs. The lessons are drawn from the priority setting for research, integration of research into programs and routine service delivery, the use of routine data, rapid-assessment survey methods, modeling, chemoprophylaxis, and the translational process of findings into policy and practice. With the lines between infectious diseases and NCDs becoming blurred, it is justifiable to integrate the programs for the two disease groups wherever possible, eg, screening for diabetes in tuberculosis. Applying these lessons will require increased political will, research capacity, ownership, use of local expertise, and research funding.

Video abstract

Point your SmartPhone at the code above. If you have a QR code reader the video abstract will appear. Or use:

http://dvpr.es/1rPARCz

Keywords:

• infectious diseases
• noncommunicable diseases
• operational research
• developing countries
• integration

Acknowledgments

I thank the editor for giving me the opportunity to present this paper. I would also like to thank Dr Jude Aidam for his comments on an early draft.

Disclosure

The author reports no conflicts of interest in this work.