Washington DC, May 30, 2024 (PAHO)- Members of the DIABFRAIL-LATAM consortium met in the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia, on May 22 and 23 2024, to present the results of the research conducted in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, and to align actions to favor the expansion of the project to other countries in Latin America based on the scale-up strategy. The meeting was attended by the consortium members from Chile, Colombia, Italy, Peru, and Spain, as well as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which leads the dissemination and communication of the project, as well as its scale-up, with significant progress in some countries.
The meeting took place along the Congress of the Colombian Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, held from 22 to 24 May, 2024, in the same city. During the congress, several members of the DIABFRAIL-LATAM Consortium offered lectures related to different aspects of the project and presented preliminary results of the proposed intervention to manage diabetes in older adults and prevent frailty. Patricia Morsch, regional advisor on healthy aging at PAHO, participated on the meeting and the congress, detailing PAHO’s strategy for the intervention’s scale- up , including opportunities for countries’ engagement.
About the Diabfrail-Latam project
The DIABFRAIL-LATAM project, funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme, aims to scale-up scientifically validated interventions for older adults with diabetes in Latin America, with a focus on preventing and managing frailty. Coordinated by the Spanish Public Biomedical Network Research Center (CIBER), the project has the collaboration of European institutions and universities, PAHO, and universities in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.
Clinical research trials were carried out in Peru, Mexico, Chile and Colombia to test the intervention comprised of an exercise program and education in frail and prefrail older adults with diabetes. With the positive results and demonstrating feasibility, the intervention is ready to be scaled-up in Latin America, with the objective to integrate it into the routine clinical practice of older adults with diabetes. The scaling-up of the intervention is being led by PAHO, both from its regional HQ and from its country offices.
DIABFRAIL-LATAM builds on the achievements of the previous MIDFRAIL-STUDY project, funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, and led by Professor Leocadio Rodríguez Mañas, who also coordinates DIABFRAIL-LATAM. MIDFRAIL-STUDY intervened in seven European countries and involved the participation of several research groups, some of them also collaborate in DIABFRAIL-LATAM.
In DIABFRAIL-LATAM, the intervention has been tailored to the specific needs of the participating Latin American countries and incorporates elements of the VIVIFRAIL project, funded by the Erasmus+ programme and coordinated by the Public University of Navarra, also a partner in this project.
