Systematic Review on Community-Based Assessment Checklist Tool in Indian Set Up

The CBAC is a simple, low-cost screening tool developed under India's National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Stroke (NPCDCS) to identify individuals at risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at the community level. A systematic search across six databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Google Scholar) identified 1,842 records, of which 1,219 unique records were screened after de-duplication and automated exclusion; 47 full-text reports were assessed for eligibility and 11 studies met all inclusion criteria. The prevalence of individuals classified as high-risk for non-communicable diseases using the CBAC varied substantially, ranging from 14.4% to 68.6%. Higher CBAC scores were consistently associated with advancing age, tobacco and alcohol use, physical inactivity, increased waist circumference, family history of NCDs, and lower educational attainment. The diagnostic performance of CBAC showed moderate accuracy, with area under the curve values ranging from 0.62-0.73, and this variation was systematically related to the reference standard used: performance was weakest against a disease-specific standard (diabetes) and strongest against broader risk constructs (metabolic syndrome, general NCD risk). The reported sensitivity ranged from 42.9% to 84.7%, while the specificity ranged from 48.8% to 87.5%.