Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Validating Estimates Of Prevalence Of Non-Communicable Diseases Based On Household Surveys: The Symptomatic Diagnosis Study, Spencer L. James, Minerva Romero, Dolores Ramírez-Villalobos, Sara Gómez

Dartmouth Scholarship

Easy-to-collect epidemiological information is critical for the more accurate estimation of the prevalence and burden of different non-communicable diseases around the world. Current measurement is restricted by limitations in existing measurement systems in the developing world and the lack of biometry tests for non-communicable diseases. Diagnosis based on self-reported signs and symptoms (“Symptomatic Diagnosis,” or SD) analyzed with computer-based algorithms may be a promising method for collecting timely and reliable information on non-communicable disease prevalence. The objective of this study was to develop and assess the performance of a symptom-based questionnaire to estimate prevalence of non-communicable diseases in low-resource areas.