Factores claves de colaboración institucional en la implementación exitosa de un modelo de intervención para reducir los factores de riesgo de enfermedades cardio-metabólicas en Ecuador

Cardio-metabolic diseases (MC) have been the main cause of death in Ecuador in recent decades; however, little effort has been made to establish intervention models to prevent and treat these public health problems. It is necessary to implement strategies at the primary care level to reduce cardiometabolic risk factors. The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the implementation of an intervention model based on medical counseling to reduce CM risk at the primary level of care. For the research, the assessment methods and intervention used in the study “Worcester Area Trial for Hyperlipidemia Counseling” are adapted, which demonstrates which patient-centered medical counseling program, along with supporting material for the office, genders beneficial changes in diet, weight and lipid levels in patients. The clinics participating in the study were selected from Quito’s public and private health systems. These clinics were randomly assigned to: intervention condition (IC), in which 8 primary care physicians (MAP) received training; or to the conventional care condition (CCC) in which 7 MAP participated and received no training. 225 people were recruited and were randomly assigned to the CI group (n = 125) or the CCC group (n = 100). It was shown that, despite the challenges encountered, it is feasible that an international research collaboration between academic institutions can successfully implement an intervention program to decrease CM risk in critiques of primary care. The key factors for the success of this intervention were the excellent communication, empathy and flexibility that existed between the local and international teams for the cultural, political and natural adversities that occurred during the project.