Surveillance, Monitoring and Reporting of NCDs and Mental Health

SUBMENU

SURVEILLANCE
MONITORING
REPORTING

Public health monitoring or surveillance activities comprise the regular collection of health information in terms of health indicators, the routine analysis of indicators over time, place, and between population groups, the sharing of available scientific knowledge, and the regular dissemination of results.

Good-quality health information is essential for planning and implementing health policy in all countries. Monitoring and surveillance provide health information in a timely manner so that countries have the information they need to fight epidemics now or plan for the future. They are fundamental tools for public health.

PAHO Response

PAHO supports the production, analysis, and dissemination of country-level data to inform and strengthen public health policies, programs, and services. The PAHO NMH surveillance team focuses on the following areas of work: surveillance, monitoring and reporting.

PAHO provides ongoing technical cooperation to Member States by supporting the development and implementation of standard methodologies for data production, analysis, and dissemination of products that translate data into action. PAHO also supports countries in increasing their capacity for surveillance, monitoring, and the use of data to guide policy and decision-making processes.

The NMH Surveillance, Monitoring, and Reporting team conducts periodic assessments to fulfill PAHO’s mandate to monitor countries’ progress toward the targets and commitments.

SURVEILLANCE

Public health surveillance is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data that is essential to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice. Data needs to be disseminated in a timely manner to support decision-making.

Population-based surveys can provide a comprehensive snapshot of the health status in a population in a certain period. It requires the application of scientific methods to define a sample that represents a population. At this moment, household, school-based and mobile phone surveys are the main modes used.

Surveillance tools:

MONITORING

Monitoring is the intermittent performance and analysis of measurements aimed at detecting changes in the health status of populations or in the physical or social environments. It is different from surveillance, which is often a continuous, periodic, and systematic process, although surveillance techniques are used in monitoring. Monitoring may also imply intervention in the light of observed measurements and analysis of the intervention's effect.

Monitoring is the process of collecting and analyzing information about the implementation and effects of a public health team. Monitoring frameworks are often adopted by countries to track progress towards the implementation of policies and interventions established in many Global, Regional, and National Plans of Action and/or Strategies related to NCDs, Mental Health, and External Causes; PAHO Strategic Plans; and United Nations Commitments, such as the 2030 Agenda with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Monitoring Frameworks

Monitoring tools:

REPORTING

The availability of data to guide the implementation of policies, interventions, and services and support decision-making processes is essential to strengthening health systems. Member States have also agreed to respond to several reporting mechanisms on NCDs, Mental Health, and External Causes.

ENLACE data portal is the PAHO’s One-Stop Shop for epidemiological, health policy, and strategic data related to NCDs, Disabilities, Rehabilitation, Mental Health, and External Causes. It provides the status of many of the monitoring frameworks adopted by countries that require periodical reporting and tracking progress toward targets. It is a technical cooperation tool that allows Member States and users to assess progress on the monitoring framework related to national, regional, and global commitments.

Reporting tools: