Question

What are common NCDs and health risk behaviors among children? Provide at least 2 examples of screening and health teaching topics a nurse would focus on targeting children.

Answer 1

1) Ans) Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behaviours factors.

The main types of NCDs are cardiovascular diseases (like heart attacks and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma) and diabetes.

Children, adults and the elderly are all vulnerable to the risk factors contributing to NCDs, whether from unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, exposure to tobacco smoke or the harmful use of alcohol.

Health programme:

✓ Health programme activities include promoting government policies that
protect against NCD risk factors and encourage healthy choices;
✓scaling up existing reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health interventions that already contribute to NCD
prevention ;
✓incorporating NCD prevention ’discourse’ into health programmes that enhance service quality and health literacy; ✓strengthening overall national and subnational health systems;
✓knowledge generation and distribution; ✓resource mobilisation, and capacity-building.

Nutrition:

✓Nutrition programme leads work addressing risks related to unhealthy diets globally, with a focus on maternal, infant, child and adolescent nutrition.
✓For example, current programmes
on protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding, promoting a healthy diet and addressing multiple micronutrient deficiencies among children aged 6-23 months, school-age children and
adolescents can be leveraged to prevent NCDs early in life.
✓Furthermore, UNICEF’s experience
with breastmilk substitute regulation will inform its participation in controlling tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy foods and sugar-sweetened beverages.
✓ To advance UNICEF Nutrition’s programming on NCDs and nutrition, guidance documents on prevention of overweight and obesity, on school
nutrition and on nutrition among adolescents, and an outline of regulatory options on food
marketing to children, labelling and fiscal ✓measures are currently under development. These will include activities related to health, education and food systems.

Early childhood program:

✓ECD incorporates a variety of priorities related to maternal, newborn and young child health and nutrition, as well as a nurturing and safe environment for children that minimises stress and fosters
confidence and socialisation.
✓ECD can contribute to NCD prevention, for example, through programmes that support responsive feeding and reduce exposure to adverse events and toxic stressors.

An important way to control NCDs is to focus on reducing the risk factors associated with these diseases. Low-cost solutions exist for governments and other stakeholders to reduce the common modifiable risk factors. Monitoring progress and trends of NCDs and their risk is important for guiding policy and priorities.

To lessen the impact of NCDs on individuals and society, a comprehensive approach is needed requiring all sectors, including health, finance, transport, education, agriculture, planning and others, to collaborate to reduce the risks associated with NCDs, and promote interventions to prevent and control them.

Investing in better management of NCDs is critical. Management of NCDs includes detecting, screening and treating these diseases, and providing access to palliative care for people in need. High impact essential NCD interventions can be delivered through a primary health care approach to strengthen early detection and timely treatment. Evidence shows such interventions are excellent economic investments because, if provided early to patients, they can reduce the need for more expensive treatment.

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