The Min­istry of Health is re­mind­ing the pub­lic to take part in its STEPS Sur­vey 2024, as it seeks to get a clear pic­ture of the pop­u­la­tion’s health and preva­lence of NCDs (non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases).

“The STEPS sur­vey will start with gath­er­ing key in­for­ma­tion with a ques­tion­naire, and then move to sim­ple phys­i­cal mea­sure­ments, fol­lowed by a dry chem­istry method for bio­chem­i­cal analy­sis,” an ad­vi­so­ry from the Health Min­istry said.

The Sur­vey, which is be­ing led by the Min­istry’s Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases Unit, was launched on April 15, 2024.  Its find­ings will be used to in­form pol­i­cy de­ci­sions and be­hav­iour change com­mu­ni­ca­tions by the Min­istry.”

Ac­cord­ing to the health min­istry, it will gath­er in­for­ma­tion from house­holds across the coun­try on peo­ple’s lifestyle prac­tices that im­pact their health, such as what you eat and drink (in­clud­ing to­bac­co and al­co­hol use), as well as how much you ex­er­cise and any health con­cerns (in­clud­ing obe­si­ty, raised blood pres­sure, raised blood glu­cose, and ab­nor­mal blood lipids).

The min­istry em­pha­sizes, how­ev­er, that the STEPS sur­vey is not a cen­sus, and as­sures: “All in­for­ma­tion col­lect­ed in the sur­vey will be kept con­fi­den­tial.”

A promotional poster for the Ministry of Health’s STEPS Survey 2024. [Image courtesy Ministry of Health]

The pub­lic is be­ing asked to par­tic­i­pate and co-op­er­ate with health min­istry field agents, who will be col­lect­ing im­por­tant da­ta on peo­ple’s health. 

“All field staff will be dressed in high-vis­i­bil­i­ty vests with the Min­istry of Health’s and the STEPS Sur­vey lo­gos for iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pur­pos­es. The field staff will al­so have as­signed Min­istry of Health ID cards,” the ad­vi­so­ry said. 

It added: “The STEPS sur­vey is a World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) STEP­wise ap­proach to NCD risk fac­tor sur­veil­lance (STEPS), which al­lows for col­lect­ing, analysing and dis­sem­i­nat­ing da­ta on key Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases (NCDs) risk fac­tors in coun­tries.”

For more in­for­ma­tion on the STEPS Sur­vey 2024, the pub­lic may con­tact the health min­istry’s Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases Unit at 214-4664 (ext. 16623).