Global Responses to HIV/AIDS and Noncommunicable Diseases: Analysis of Similarities and Differences

Introduction: Recent evidence suggests that HIV/AIDS and Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) share essential commonalities in their risk factors, progression and management. However, the interrelatedness between the global responses to HIV/AIDS and NCDs hasn’t been systematically analyzed.
Objective: To examine the similarities and differences between global responses to HIV/AIDS and NCDs.
Methods: Using preliminary review of literature, we identified four major themes of the global response: Strategies, Systems, Intervention and Monitoring and Evaluation. Detailed review of purposively selected documents was then conducted under these four themes. Similarities and differences between the global response to HIV/AIDS and NCDs were then examined for each major theme using qualitative content analysis and interpretive synthesis. The findings were presented using narrative summaries, tables and boxes.
Findings: HIV/AIDS and NCD strategies are similar in their general approach. However, HIV strategies are geared towards improving effectiveness and efficiency of programs while NCD ones focus on increasing access to and coverage of services and enhancing the priority accorded to NCDs. The organizational systems involved in the global response to both HIV/AIDS and NCDs involve multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder and multi-level approaches that require global coordination mechanisms. The presence of many diseases in the NCD group means more complex coordination of the NCD response. HIV/AIDS and NCD interventions use similar models and approaches despite their differences in the technical content of the interventions and the demographic characteristics of the target population groups. The indicators and the target populations for monitoring and evaluation of HIV/AIDS and NCD programs differ in their timeframe, level of specificity, and relative magnitude. Besides, the current NCD targets are voluntary. However, the Monitoring and Evaluation frameworks share important similarities in the methods used to generate and manage information.
Conclusion: The similarities between the global responses to HIV and NCDs indicate that there are many processes that could be coordinated and/or integrated to improve synergy and efficiency. The differences, on the other hand, warrant the need for maintaining the integrity of the responses to each disease condition.