This comprehensive bibliographic database on research related to major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and risk factors in Sri Lanka is developed by the Health System Research Unit (HSRU) of the Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office for Sri Lanka and Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Sri Lanka.
Each year, 80 million people die from four major NCDs, namely cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease in the world. Of them, 15 million die before the age of 70 years. Over 80% of these premature deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries. In concurrence, major NCDs are responsible for 83% of the total deaths in Sri Lanka, with the risk of dying prematurely being 18%. Majority of these premature deaths are preventable, through simple measures implemented to reduce the risk factors and appropriate health systems response. To achieve this, it is essential that country-specific evidence based strategies (‘local best buys’) are identified.
Professionals from many disciplines engage in research related to NCDs in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, there is a plethora of evidence available in Sri Lanka on major NCDs, however the proportion of the generated evidence that has been translated into practice has been relatively small in Sri Lanka. One constraint had been the non-availability of a bibliography of literature within the last 20 years. This bibliographic database aims to bridge this gap, by providing a hub for research evidence collated for Sri Lanka. It will enable researchers as well as policy makers to translate the available evidence on clinical and preventive strategies & practices into an ‘’implementable’’ platform enriched to support local best buys in NCDs in Sri Lanka. It would also facilitate the researchers to appraise the existing literature and thereby to develop research priorities and conduct applied research, based on the gaps identified in scientific work.
Selection criteria of the publications
This bibliographic database refers to literature on cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer and chronic Kidney disease; their risk factors; interventions to prevent and control such NCDs; and health system response in Sri Lanka, based on studies conducted locally in adult populations during 2000-2018 period.
The following types of publication were excluded: animal studies; studies on Ayurvedic, complementary or traditional treatment methods (e.g. alleviation and purification therapy, yoga exercises, meditation, physiotherapy, acupuncture); laboratory-based studies on the molecular, chemical or pharmacological properties of non-plant based therapeutics; studies conducted on children & adolescents, pregnant women (e.g. gestational diabetes, pregnancy induced hypertension) and migrant populations; case studies and case series; and epidemiological studies in samples less than 100 selected using non-probability sampling methods.
Sources of publications
Publications included in this database are abstracts of full paper articles published in local or international scientific journals; abstracts presented in local conference proceedings; and abstracts of academic research work available in local libraries or in e-repositories.
Retrieval of publications comprised the following search process:
For accessing the full article, URL link/DOI to the relevant article is provided.
This bibliographic database includes information of approximately 1359 abstracts (800 from online sources, 98 from the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine and the rest retrieved as hard copies from professional colleges, associations, and institutes.
Limitations of the bibliography:
The following abstracts were not included in the database:
Of the 1750 publications retrieved initially, 1359 publications were finalized after removal of duplicates.
Summary of the data extraction for the NCD bibliographic review| Description | No. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Type of publication | |
| 2 | Full article (International & Local) | 573 |
| 3 | Conference proceedings/abstracts | 686 |
| 4 | Thesis/Dissertations | 100 |
| By classification | ||
| 1 | Burden of chronic NCDs | 241 |
| 2 | Risk factor burden | 153 |
| 3 | Risk assessment/associations | 250 |
| 4 | Screening for NCD or complications | 140 |
| 5 | Clinical/histological/genetic presentations of NCDs/Complications | 42 |
| 6 | Management and follow-up | 256 |
| 7 | Interventions- Pharmacological/Non-pharmacological | 20 |
| 8 | Quality of care/Audit | 69 |
| 9 | Side effects/complications of interventions/treatments | 33 |
| 10 | Treatments for chronic NCDs/Complications/risk factors | 97 |
| 11 | Utilization of services | 105 |
| 12 | Survival analysis | 82 |
| 13 | Lifestyle related behaviours- health promotion and education | 58 |
| 14 | Costing | 16 |
| 15 | Laboratory-based experiments and innovations | 48 |
| 16 | Health information systems | 10 |