Disability, noncommunicable disease and health information

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a major cause of preventable disability worldwide.1 While actions to monitor NCDs have gained significant momentum in the global health agenda, similar developments to monitor and manage the growing burden of NCD-related disability have been relatively slow. The global NCD action plan was developed to support country efforts in addressing the devastating social, economic and public health impacts of NCDs.2 The NCD action plan includes nine voluntary targets and a monitoring framework. However, the monitoring framework has been criticized for its focus on mortality while neglecting adequate measures of morbidity and disability.3 This has resulted from focusing on existing data within health information systems, rather than on identifying appropriate data for measuring disease burden. Indeed, the issue of the chronicity of NCDs seems absent in most monitoring and evaluation frameworks, with an implicit assumption that the only outcome of interest for countries is premature mortality.