The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ National Cardiac Database (NCD), which is housed and managed at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, has set the standard for effective professional society–sponsored clinical registries. Nearly 90% of US hospitals performing cardiac surgery participate in the NCD. In addition to accruing mortality and morbidity outcomes information from 3.6 million cardiac su...

International collaboration is important in healthcare quality evaluation; however, few international comparisons of general surgery outcomes have been accomplished. Furthermore, predictive model application for risk stratification has not been internationally evaluated. The National Clinical Database (NCD) in Japan was developed in collaboration with the American College of Surgeons National S...

BACKGROUND Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) are major health concerns in South Africa. According to the life cycle approach NCD prevention strategies should target children. Educators are important external factors influencing behaviour of learners. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of selective NCD risk factors in educators of primary school learners. METHODS A cross-s...

Physical inactivity is a strong risk factor of non-communicable diseases (NCD). In China, there are 250 million migrant factory workers, who are susceptible to physical inactivity and hence NCD because of work nature and setting. With random stratified sampling, 807 such workers of the light industry were recruited in Shenzhen, China and completed a self-administered questionnaire with informed...

Palau, similar to other Pacific island countries, is currently highly burdened with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The WHO STEPS was launched in 2011 to comprehensively survey indicators for NCDs in the country. This paper aims to describe the prevalence of key NCD risk factors assessed by the survey. The WHO instrument, including behavioral, physical and biochemical measurements, was adopte...

BACKGROUND To date there has been no population-based survey of the major risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD) in Uganda. Hospital-based data from urban centres report an increasing burden of NCDs in Uganda. This population-based survey aimed to describe the prevalence of risk factors for NCDs in a rural Ugandan district. METHODS The survey was conducted using the WHO STEPwise app...

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) account for two-thirds of all deaths globally, with 75% of these occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Many LMICs seek cost-effective methods to obtain timely and quality NCD risk factor data that could inform resource allocation, policy development, and assist evaluation of NCD trends over time. Over the last decade, there has been a proliferati...

 The demographic and epidemiologic transitions in South Asia are resulting in an increasing share of the disease burden related to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).  The impact of these two transitions can either allow countries to benefit from the demographic dividend or miss the opportunity due to increased morbidity, disability, and mortality among the working-age population, and to increas...

BACKGROUND The population of Fiji has experienced emergence of non-communicable disease (NCD) and a plateau in life expectancy over the past 20 years. METHODS A mini-STEPS survey (n = 2765) was conducted in Viseisei in Western Fiji to assess NCD risk factors (RFs) in i-Taukei (Melanesians) and those of Indian descent aged 25-64 years (response 73 %). Hypertension (HT) was defined as systolic ...