Prevention of chronic diseases: reorienting primary health systems in India

Abstract

This policy brief analyzes some of the major challenges in terms of governance, manpower and financing that such a transition will be faced with, and develops a number of actionable policy recommendations to address them. It does so based on extensive desk and field research in 4 Indian states – Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu – and 4 countries – Japan, Canada, United States, Sri Lanka – involving interactions with close to 200 stakeholders from policy, industry, international organizations, civil society and the academia. In less than a decade, the burden of chronic diseases will overwhelm health systems in India – 89 percent of mortality will happen at 30+ year level by 2025-2030.