Meta salud: Building binational collaboration with community health workers for prevention of chronic disease

This presentation will discuss a binational collaboration of El Colegio de Sonora, the Secretaria de Salud in Sonora and the Arizona Prevention Research Center at the University of Arizona College of Public Health to develop and implement a community health worker chronic disease prevention curriculum and intervention in underserved communities in Mexico. The original curriculum, Pasos Adelante, was tested in the U.S.-Mexico border region for more than six years and was modeled after the Su Corazón, Su Vida curriculum developed by NHLBI. The newer Mexican curriculum, MetaSalud, was adapted to be used with the Secretaria de Salud in Sonora and has been implemented in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico for the past two years with more than 150 participants. The presentation will include: the adaption process highlighting those areas of the curriculum that were relevant to both populations as well as the changes to the curriculum for the population in Mexico; the similarities and differences of the community health worker role in implementation of the curriculum; results and outcomes of the intervention in the United States and Mexico; and challenges to the institutionalization of the program in both countries. Discussion will focus on lessons learned through this binational collaboration regarding the role of community health workers in chronic disease prevention, and future plans for collaborative binational health promotion interventions in the border region.