Surveillance

The INCLEN (International Clinical Epidemiological Network) is a unique international network of healthcare professionals (clinical epidemiologists, biostatisticians, health social scientists and other health professionals) who apply multidisciplinary approaches to identify best practices to improve ‘health for all’ in local, national, regional and global settings. It has established a surveillance site for studying the issues of chronic diseases with focus on childhood obesity near Delhi, in Palwal district of Haryana. Surrounded by three major roads (NH – 2, Palwal – Hathin Major District Road – 135 & Major District Road – 132), this site covers 51 villages, spread over three blocks. By monitoring various aspects of population in a longitudinal fashion, the surveillance activities facilitate understanding of the determinants and causal linkages of various health conditions.

SOMAARTH focuses on establishing an integrated surveillance system that is simple, feasible, affordable, and sustainable and addresses health in the context of environment. It also aims to provide a platform for multi-disciplinary policy- and program-relevant studies with multisectoral collaboration in the same geographic area. SOMAARTH has two major components

  • Demographic Surveillance: Periodic documentation of the size, structure and distribution of populations in the area, and spatial and/or temporal changes in response to birth, migration, aging and death.
  • Environmental Surveillance: Periodic documentation of physical structures, natural features and climatic conditions. This includes documentation of important social, economic, agriculture, industrial, businesses, markets, institutions (including education), components of urbanization, built environment and town planning activities, traffic patterns, and use of pesticides and other chemicals. SOMAARTH has a met station and is building systematic monitoring of air and water quality into their regular monitoring schemes.

Our surveillance site includes following domains :-

Geographic

      • Real-time updating of Geo-Coded Database (GIS) of Built, Physical and Social Environment
      • Linkage with Economic and Health Changes

Demographic

      • Periodic Documentation of the Size, Structure and Distribution of Population in the Area
      • Temporal Changes in response to Birth, Migration, Marriages & Death.

Developmental

      • Changes in Human Development Index and Economic Status of People
      • Monitoring Living Standards, Quality of Life and Vulnerability

Health

      • Recording of Health Parameters particularly Chronic Disease and Disabilities
      • Mapping Of Nutritional status, Food Environment and Individual Behaviors

Societal

      • Changes in Individual Behaviors attributed to Culture
      • Peer influence in shaping up Individual Behaviors

Environmental

      • Monitoring the Physical and Structural Changes in the Location.
      • Monitoring of Air Quality and Water bodies.