Using Collaborative Learning to Improve Diabetes Care and Outcomes: The Veracruz Initiative for Diabetes Awareness (VIDA) Project The VIDA Team The VIDA Team (in alphabetical order): Barceló, Alberto1, Cafiero, Elizabeth1, de Boer, Melanie4, Escobar Mesa, Alejandro2, García Lopez, Marcelina2, Jimenez, Rosa Aurora3, Lara Esqueda, Agustín3, Martinez, José Antonio3, Medina Holguin, Esperanza2, Meiners, Micheline1, Moreno Bonfil, Gerson2, Navarro Ramirez, Saturnino2, Pérez Flores, Enrique1, Robles, Sylvia1
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Pan American Health Organization, Washington DC 2 Servicios de Salud de Veracruz 3 Secretaria de Salud de Mexico 4 Pan American Health Organization, Mexico
Corresponding Author: Alberto Barceló, Pan American Health Organization, 525 23rd St NW, Washington DC 20037-2895, USA (
[email protected])
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Abstract Introduction It has been documented that the prevalence of diabetes in Mexico among those 20-64 years of age has increased from 7.2% in 1993 to 10.7% in 2000. National, populationbased surveys in Mexico have also shown that 50% of the total population with diabetes had blood glucose level of 200 mg/dl or higher. Thus, diabetes care has become one of the most important public health challenges in this country. Methods The aim of the study was to improve the quality of diabetes care in primary health care centers using the chronic care model and the Breakthrough Series (BTS) collaborative methodology. Ten public health centers in the cities of Xalapa and Veracruz were randomly selected to participate in the project. Five of the health centers were randomly assigned to receive the intervention (cases) and the other five followed usual care (controls). The intervention was monitored by A1c test before and after the intervention in both groups of patients. Results were adjusted for the clustering of patients within practices. Results The proportion of people with good glicemic control (A1c
