CREATE

NIHR Global Health Research Group on collaborative care for cardiometabolic disease in Africa.

Study title

African healthcare was developed to focus on infectious diseases like HIV. This means that African healthcare is not set up well to cope with non-infectious diseases becoming more common. The most common non-infectious diseases are ‘cardiometabolic diseases’. This includes heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. All of these can lead to early death. It makes sense to tackle cardiometabolic diseases together because they can be treated in similar ways. For example, losing weight and increasing exercise can help with all of them.

Background

The aims of this work are to develop a chronic care model to improve outcomes, and risk factor control for adults with cardiometabolic disease in Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique. The results will be improved cardiometabolic health management for patients in these countries, with better research and community engagement in healthcare.

Study aims

Researchers from University of Leicester will work together with researchers and doctors from these countries to determine what healthcare needs are most important to patients and health workers. This will support development of a care model which can be used to provide better healthcare to patients with cardiometabolic diseases. A single arm feasibility study involving patients, healthcare professionals and community participants will be conducted prior to design and planning of a randomised controlled trial to test the developed model.

Themes within this project are training and capacity building, and establishing a programme of community engagement and involvement. Capacity building will be tailored to develop future leaders in research in sub-Saharan Africa. Community engagement will shape delivery of this research programme, maximise impact and build lasting capacity to support future research. These benefits will likely translate to substantial economic benefits for the local healthcare providers, patients, and health systems.

Study summary

Study progress 

We have currently completed the first of three years, and have identified existing resources and barriers to cardiometabolic health management through workshops involving key stakeholders and comprehensive literature search. A draft intervention model has also been developed incorporating self-management education and upskilling healthcare workers and community leaders. Training and capacity building assessments have identified research needs which we have addressed through development of bespoke training courses to upskill early career researchers from the collaborating sites.

This programme of work is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) as part of the Global Health Research Group to address locally-identified challenges in low and middle income countries (LMICs), by supporting equitable research partnerships between researchers and institutions in the UK and those in LMICs.

Funding and sponsorship

Not available at present

Study publications

Joint leads:

UK PI: Professor Kamlesh Khunti

Ghana Co-PI: Dr Roberta Lamptey

Research Associate/Project Manager: Dr Shabana Cassambai

For more information, please contact: sc833@leicester.ac.uk

Research team