ProSALUTE: a New Community Program for Cardiovascular Health

Primary Cardiovascular (CV) prevention programs in the healthcare place and community-based interventions have a variable impact on health at the population level. The largest benefit may be obtained by addressing high-risk, disadvantaged and traditionally hard-to-reach groups.

Effective actions include health promotion, timely screening of modifiable risk factors, application of evidence-based targets and interventions, broad access to heart-friendly environments/facilities and dissemination of favorable social norms. Thus, community prevention is a multifaceted task that requires multidisciplinary collaboration. A suitable program should be tailored to the specific social context and make the most of local resources to improve access, adherence and continuity, as well as sustainability.

ProSALUTE is a new model of primary CV prevention for the prevalently low-income and multiethnic community of Ponte Lambro (n=3600 adults), the neighborhood where the coordinating hospital (Centro Cardiologico Monzino, Milan, Italy) is located.

Under the coordination of a Case Manager (a Nursing Researcher) the citizens are involved in a prevention program, which is personalized (content and intensity) according to the individual global risk and specific risk factors. The citizens follow an individualized schedule of short-term specialist care. Besides, the participants are "gently nudged" to make use of local resources that may contribute to sustain a healthy life-style (e.g. parks, gyms, social services, etc). Moreover, public preventive events for the community are devised (e.g. healthy-cooking course, walking groups, etc) through a collaborative network with representatives of the neighborhood.