Parallel Session 2.5

The world is facing a spectre of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which will diminish the length and quality of life, interact with existing health conditions, raise household and public health expenditures, and increase the burden of care on family members. A number of policies have been implemented to fight NCDs and studies have shown some interventions to be ‘best buys’ whereas others are ‘wasted buys’. Most NCDs can be preventable and, given the generally lower cost and simpler delivery of preventive interventions, a move towards preventive rather than curative interventions could be attractive. Another approach that is gaining prominence in discussions of NCDs is ‘do-it-yourself’ or DIY interventions. NCDs are by definition not contagious or infectious and people develop them over the course of their lives for many reasons including those to do with lifestyle. As such, they can be prevented if people modify their lifestyles (i.e., in DIY interventions). At present, there is no definitive collection of evidence on ‘best buys’, ‘wasted buys’, and DIY interventions for the prevention of the NCD burden that governments, health professionals, NCD program managers, and healthy lifestyle promotion personnel can use.