National Strategies for Preventing and Managing Non-communicable Diseases in Selected Countries.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide and are responsible for a high burden of disease. Many countries have developed national strategies for the management and prevention of NCDs to improve the care of chronically ill people or prevent NCDs. This article aims to provide an overview of national NCD strategies from selected countries and their implementation.

Assessment of public health interventions for decision support: methods & processes of the evaluation of the Austrian screening programme for pregnant women & children.

Background: In 2010, the Austrian Ministry of Health (MoH) commissioned the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment (LBI-HTA) to prepare decision support for the reorientation of the national screening programme for pregnant women and children ("Mutter-Kind-Pass"). This is one of several reports aimed at giving an overview of recommended screening measures.

Methods: By conducting a guideline synopsis, we summarised screening recommendations from guidelines of high methodological quality.

[Practical experience with overviews of reviews--valuable decision aid or academic exercise?].

The "overview of reviews" has evolved as a method to aggregate information from systematic reviews. Based on research projects conducted by two Austrian institutions, this article aims to point out methods and perceived strengths and limitations of overviews of reviews and to discuss their application and constraints for different healthcare settings. The six analysed projects differed in their objectives as well as in the corresponding methodology.

Recommendations from international clinical guidelines for routine antenatal infection screening: does evidence matter?

Aim: Maternal infections in pregnancy may cause severe child morbidity. In this article, we aim to summarise recommendations from international evidence-based clinical guidelines for infection screening in pregnancy.

Methods: We conducted a systematic search for evidence-based guidelines in two databases (Guidelines International Network and National Guideline Clearinghouse) and a hand search on websites of international institutions and societies that develop evidence-based guidelines.