Cardiometabolic risk reduction through lifestyle intervention programs in the Brazilian public health system.

Unlabelled: Public health strategies to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality should focus on global cardiometabolic risk reduction. The efficacy of lifestyle changes to prevent type 2 diabetes have been demonstrated, but low-cost interventions to reduce cardiometabolic risk in Latin-America have been rarely reported. Our group developed 2 programs to promote health of high-risk individuals attending a primary care center in Brazil.

[Implementation of a structured healthy lifestyle program to reduce cardiometabolic risk].

The objective this study was to describe the methodology and implementation of lifestyle change program in individuals at cardiometabolic risk seen at the public health system in Sao Paulo. The Programa de Prevenção de Diabetes Mellitus (PDM) aims at improving the overall metabolic profile of individuals with prediabetes or metabolic syndrome without diabetes; its goals were > 5% weight loss, dietary fiber intake > 20 g per day, saturated fatty acids intake < 10% per day, and > 150 minutes of physical activity per week. The first edition of the PDM lasted 18 months and involved an interdisciplinary team (endocrinologist, psychologist, nutritionist, and physical educator) to plan and conduct group sessions with the participants.