August start eyed for NCD Survey in the Commonwealth

A surveillance survey that will seek to measure the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in the Commonwealth is being eyed for implementation in August, according to a Division of Public Health official yesterday.

Becky Robles, administrator of the Division of Public Health-NCD Bureau, said it will be a population-based survey that will result in better and accurate data on the adult prevalence base rates for high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and body mass index or BMI.

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and its subsidiary division, DPH, along with the soon-to-be revived NCD Task Force and the NCD Alliance, will conduct the survey.

“This will help CHCC-DPH so we will then be able to say that this is that percentage of the population we’ve come up with for better programs to be implemented in addressing a more effective way for this issue,” Robles said.

The survey also aims to garner more accurate statistics that is highly needed for the Pacific region because the CNMI lacks the numbers it needs to guide policy decisions governing health issues. Much of the current data are from four or more years ago or different organizations have different numbers.

Dr. Daniel Lamar, CHCC Medical Director for Public Health, said an NCD Task Force would soon be created.

“It is in the works and it will work with us and the NCD Alliance to make the survey possible,” Lamar said.

“This survey will help us know what we’re starting from and from there, we can implement plans on ways to address this problem to see if it will have any impact on future surveys,” he added.

Robles said they will also be working with the CNMI Department of Commerce in implementing the CNMI Behavioral Health Survey.

These surveys will be entirely for the CNMI. The NCD survey itself will have roughly 60 questions and will be associated with the CNMI Behavioral Health Survey.

In addition to these surveys, CHCC will also be looking at behavioral risk factors as a part of the survey. Behavioral risks factors are those that contribute to NCDs such as tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, etc.

The NCD survey will be a combination survey similar to the World Health Organizations’ STEP survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Survey.

“Because those standalone surveys focuses on the U.S and WHO’s STEP is more regional and worldwide, we can bring those together to be most effective in the Pacific. This will help us compare our data with other Pacific entities and see where we are in relation and begin working together regionally,” Robles said.

Funding for these surveys is from $85,000 to $100,000, according to Robles and Lamar. The funding will come through partnerships with the Northern Marianas College, WHO, and other existing grants within DPH’s budget.