DISEASE PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT

To provide leadership and direction for urgent global, regional and national efforts to promote health
and to prevent and control major chronic diseases and their risk factors.

Our objectives
The CHP Department's strategic objectives are to:

 Advocate for health promotion and chronic disease prevention and control.
 Promote health, especially for poor and disadvantaged populations.
 Slow and reverse the adverse trends in the common chronic disease risk factors.
 Prevent premature deaths and avoid unnecessary disability due to major chronic diseases.
 Prevent blindness and deafness.
Core functions
Advocacy
Coordination and strengthening of global advocacy and communication on key messages, resource
mobilization, and the development of partnerships. Aim is to ensure increased prominence of chronic
disease and health promotion issues on the global health agenda; ensure necessary funding to close
the knowledge-action gap; and to encourage an integrated chronic disease management model based
on primary health care.

 Global report "Preventing chronic diseases: a vital investment"

Health Promotion
Health promotion aims to address the underlying determinants of population risks; promote multi-
sectoral policies and programmes to improve health and reduce health inequalities; and support
development of evidence-base for interventions.

 Health promotion
 Move for health initiative
 School health and youth health promotion
 Oral health
 Integrated chronic disease prevention and control
Surveillance and Population-based Prevention
Surveillance and primary prevention are fundamental to the Department's mission. The main aims are
to reduce population levels of risk by controlling major common risk factors for chronic disease and to
assist countries to monitor trends in major risk factors.

One of the top priorities is the implementation of the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity
and Health, which was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2004. The Strategy describes
actions needed to support the adoption of healthy diets and regular physical activity.

 Diet and physical activity

 STEPwise approach to surveillance (STEPS)
Prevention and Management
 Integrated chronic disease prevention and management aims to reduce overall risk in high-risk
individuals and provide appropriate care by facilitating early case finding through affordable strategies
and technologies, and equitable and good quality health care for major chronic diseases.

 Cancer
 Cardiovascular diseases
 Chronic respiratory diseases
 Chronic rheumatic conditions
 Diabetes
 Genomic resource centre
 Prevention of blindness and visual impairment
 Prevention of deafness and hearing impairment