Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Development In The Republic Of Moldova

In the Republic of Moldova cardiovascular diseases are considered to be one of the most important public health issues, showing about 56% of the total mortality structure in the last decade. According to the World Health Organization behavior risk factor is considered as main target of intervention in prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases. Despite this fact, an ongoing monitoring of behavioral risk factor is not implemented in the health information system in the Republic of Moldova. The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of a new implementation of the ongoing behavioral risk factor surveillance system in the Republic of Moldova. There was performed many approaches as: SWOT analyses and organizational experiment which results suggested a Delphi survey initiation. There was applied the research design of transversal study using the methodology based on the U.S. behavioral risk surveillance system standards. The systematic random sampling was performed in order to select 800 land telephone numbers. The adults aged 18-69 years were considered eligible for land phone interview provided by the trained staff. As a result of the analysis of data, it has been found that interviewers reached the respondents in 37.5% (95%CI, 34.21% - 40.91%) of cases. In conclusion, the low resolution rate is determined by the high level of unresolved cases. The ways to decrease the number of unknown eligibility category is to apply good practices of developed proven ongoing behavioral risk factor surveillance systems of such countries as the U.S.A., Italy and Canada by performing Delphi survey. The consensus on the opinions of experts will contribute to provide more credible evidence based recommendations for a new implementation of the behavioral risk factor surveillance system in the Republic of Moldova.