Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública · 15 authors, 1 centre
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This narrative review summarizes PAHO's 25-year NCD program across the Americas, finding important advances in NCD policies, health service capacity, and surveillance alongside some decline in premature NCD mortality, but insufficient data to link interventions directly to health outcomes.
This narrative review provides a comprehensive analysis of PAHO's 25-year NCD program, covering epidemiological changes, NCD policies, health service capacity evolution, and surveillance across the Americas. The program, initiated in 1997 following the World Health Report highlighting NCDs as the cause of half of all global deaths, evolved from regional epidemiological analyses through advocacy and technical assistance. However, the paper notes that not enough data are available to show the direct impact of these interventions on health outcomes. Recommendations include integrating NCDs as a core pillar of primary care, using health taxes for NCD prevention investment, and implementing policies to reduce demand for tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed products.
