The "Know Your Numbers" Program in Atahualpa
Condition: Cardiovascular Risk Factors; Stroke; Ischemic Heart Disease
MeSH terms: Stroke; Heart Diseases; Myocardial Ischemia; Coronary Artery Disease
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Persons voluntarily attending the Community Center of the Atahualpa Project during one
      calendar year will be evaluated by trained personnel to check their cardiovascular health
      status. A chart with information of healthy behaviors as well as the numbers of the person's
      blood pressure, fasting glucose, and total cholesterol levels will be given. Persons who sign
      the informed consent will be visited at their homes after 3 months and than every year up to
      five years. The idea is to check whether the person followed our advises and if that
      compliance iis associated with improvement in the cardiovascular status or with a decreased
      incidence of stroke and ischemic heart disease, when compared with persons who did not attend
      the community center or those who did not follow our advices.
    

Detailed description: 
      Campaigns aimed to increase the level of awareness on cardiovascular risk factors may
      encourage people to change their lifestyles and to increase compliance with medication. This
      intervention has been called the "know your numbers program" and has been tested in developed
      countries. No study have evaluated the efficacy of this program in reducing the prevalence of
      ischemic heart disease and stroke on the long-term follow-up, and this program has not been
      applied to people living in rural areas of developing countries. During the study years, a
      community center of the Atahualpa Project will be open and stuffed with trained paramedical
      personnel that will attend people that voluntarily look for information. All these persons
      will be invited to participate in the "know your numbers" program, and those who sign the
      informed consent form will be enrolled in the program. Recruitment will be during one
      calendar year to assure the inclusion of a significant sample size of the population. As part
      of the initial visit, the CVH status of all individuals will be evaluated. Thereafter,
      persons will be informed on their health status and the best ways to improve it according to
      specific situations. Those who merit treatment for a given condition will be instructed to go
      to the physician for proper advice and prescription. A chart containing information on stroke
      and ischemic heart disease warning signs, as well as on healthy behaviors will be provided to
      all persons. All enrolled persons will be visited at their homes three months after the
      initial visit to the community center, and then, every year up to five years. We will
      evaluate whether the person followed our advices or the reasons for poor compliance. Persons
      will be asked to tell us if they remember the ischemic heart disease and stroke warning
      signs. Anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, total cholesterol and fasting glucose
      levels will be recorder at every visit and, again, any specific advice to improve "their
      numbers" or to seek for medical attention will be given. By the end of the study, the
      investigators will be able to correlate the CVH status of the person as well as the
      occurrence of vascular outcomes or death according to whether our advices were followed or
      not. Statistical analysis will be directed to refute the null hypothesis that this
      intervention does not improve the CVH and does not reduce the risk of stroke or ischemic
      heart disease
    

Intervention name(s): Lifestyle counseling
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): People attending the community center will be provided with information on their health problems and will receive advise on how to improve blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: cardiovascular health, stroke, ischemic heart disease