Estudio epidemiológico sobre enfermedades no transmisibles en población rural de San Luis, Argentina. Aspectos metodológicos

Objective to describe the methodological aspects of the first epidemiological study on the profile of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in rural areas of Argentina carried out in 2017. Methods A cross-sectional design was used. The reference population was the inhabitants of 18 years and over from the towns of Beazley, Zanjitas, Alto Pelado and Cazador, Juan M. de Pueyrredon department, San Luis province, Argentina. According to the latest census source, the number of inhabitants of that age group was 808 inhabitants. All homes in each locality were visited; All subjects who met the inclusion criteria were invited to participate. The research consisted of two phases: application of a self-report questionnaire in the home, followed by physical measurements, a FINDIRSC questionnaire (Finnish Diabetes Risk Score) and biochemical determinations. The data were dumped into a database in Epi Info 7. The statistical processing and analysis was performed in R 3.5.2 language. Results 375 survey records with complete data were obtained, which represented 46.41% of the registered population according to census source; 252 performed laboratory analysis (67.20%) and 250 physical examination (66.67%). Participants in the survey phase exhibited characteristics similar to those who completed all stages of the investigation for most of the characteristics studied. Conclusions this research was pioneer in generating knowledge about the NCD profile in the rural population of Argentina. It is expected to constitute an input for the planning of prevention policies, taking into account the local particularities.