U.S.-Mexico Border - Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) U.S.-Mexico Border Office
Center of Excellence
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) U.S.-Mexico Border Office
El Paso, Texas
Principal Investigator: Maria Teresa Cerqueira, Ph.D.
Center of Excellence Activity Sites
- Tijuana, Mexico
- Hermosillo, Mexico
- Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
- Reynosa, Mexico
Developed Country Partners
University of Texas, El Paso, College of Health Sciences, El Paso, Texas, USA
Principal Investigator: Kathleen Curtis, Ph.D.
University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Principal Investigator: Cecilia Rosales, M.D., M.S.
The Whittier Institute for Diabetes, San Diego, California, USA
Principal Investigator: Chris Walker, M.S.
Background
Populations that live on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border share environmental conditions, as well as striking similarities in priority health issues, providing strong rationale for the need for a bilateral and bi-national public health prevention agenda for the region. The residents share six of the 10 leading causes of death, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes mellitus, malignant neoplasms, cerebrovascular diseases, injuries, and liver disease including cirrhosis. The greatest contributors to the burden of chronic, noncommunicable diseases in the border region include hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.
A survey conducted by PAHO between 2000 and 2002 found that among the approximately 8 million adults (18 years and older) residing along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, 1.1 million (approximately 15 percent) have diabetes. In addition, another 14 percent of adults were found to have risk factors for diabetes. Altogether, a significant proportion of the adult border population is in urgent need of better, more complete, and accessible health services.
There is a crucial need to implement interventions to prevent and control chronic diseases, and to coordinate efforts and create synergy among the various groups working on this epidemic.
Objectives
- Strengthen the capacity to implement community-based models to manage and prevent chronic diseases and promote health.
- Build and strengthen the capacity of the public health work force at all levels to counter chronic diseases.
- Build on and maintain a database of evidence on chronic diseases, as well as models and policies to effectively counter, prevent, and manage chronic diseases along the border.
- Advocate for a broad spectrum of policy and environmental changes to counter chronic diseases along the border, including policy makers at the local, state, federal, and international levels.
Research Activities
- Collect and assess information on social and behavior risk factors as well as prevalence of chronic diseases via survey and other surveillance instruments.
- Utilize a socio-ecological framework to inventory and assess the necessary elements of health promotion and prevention services and promotora (community health worker, or CHW) outreach programs.
- Evaluate and compare the "Integrated Community- Based Model," a chronic diseases prevention and health promotion model, with individual models (Projects Dulce, Pasos Adelante, and Empresa Sana and Escuela Sana). The individual models address health promotion, primary prevention, and secondary prevention.
- Implement and evaluate the models in several border cities in Mexico in order to develop a new integrated model.
- Implement interventions at the neighborhood, school, and workplace levels to disseminate best practices in chronic disease prevention and health promotion.
Training
- Generate and provide quality education and training for health professionals and CHWs, with an emphasis on chronic disease prevention, control, and management.
- Systematically review the promotores experiences and practices including assessment of existing training programs and educational materials.
- Analyze existing programs of study at the participating universities in medical and public health training programs and establish recommendations to strengthen training in chronic disease prevention and care in several health fields: medicine, nursing, nutrition, psychology, and others, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels (master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral).
Other Partner Organizations
Colegio de Sonora
Hermosillo,
Sonora, Mexico
The Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez
Chihuahua, Mexico
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
Tijuana,
Baja California, Mexico
Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas
Victoria,
Tamaulipas, Mexico
Funding
The Center of Excellence along the U.S.-Mexico border receives funding from the UnitedHealth Group.
Last Updated: September 30, 2009
