Key result
The Community-Based Assessment Checklist (CBAC) demonstrated moderate diagnostic accuracy for non-communicable disease risk, with AUC values ranging from 0.62 to 0.73.
Why the study?
The CBAC is a simple, low-cost screening tool developed under India's NPCDCS to identify individuals at risk of NCDs at the community level, but its diagnostic performance and prevalence estimates vary across studies.
Does the Community-Based Assessment Checklist (CBAC) accurately identify individuals at risk of non-communicable diseases in the Indian community setting?
Systematic Review
Does the Community-Based Assessment Checklist (CBAC) accurately identify individuals at risk of non-communicable diseases in the Indian community setting?
The CBAC is a simple, low-cost screening tool that demonstrates moderate diagnostic accuracy for identifying individuals at high risk for non-communicable diseases in Indian communities.
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%.
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Muralidharan et al. (2026) conducted a systematic review in Non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Community-Based Assessment Checklist (CBAC) vs. Reference standards (disease-specific or broader risk constructs) was evaluated on Diagnostic performance (Area under the curve, sensitivity, specificity). The Community-Based Assessment Checklist (CBAC) demonstrated moderate diagnostic accuracy for non-communicable disease risk, with AUC values ranging from 0.62 to 0.73.
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