Introduction

Arterial hypertension (high blood pressure) is one of the most prevalent chronic noncommunicable diseases. It is a cause of cardiovascular disease and is the leading attributable cause of death in the Region of the Americas.

Objectives

Synthesize the recommendations developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve the quality of care and health outcomes of adults with high blood pressure, and address aspects of implementing these recommendations.

Objectives

To identify the front-of-package scheme—Multiple Traffic Light (MTL), Nutri-Score (NS), and black octagon Warning System (WS)—most effective in reducing purchase intention and perceived product healthfulness of drinking yogurts, cookies and cheese spreads, and to assess the joint influence of nutrient claims on the effects.

Objective

To determine lung cancer mortality trends in Colombia during the period 1985-2018 in the population aged 35 years and over and identify changes in the trend.

Methods

Analysis of mortality time series. The specific standardized rates by sex and age group were calculated. Using joinpoint regression, the annual percentage change in the rates was estimated and points of change were identified.

Objective

To assess the characteristics, self-reported tobacco use, knowledge, and perceptions about smoking cessation among cancer care providers (CCPs), as well as perceived barriers to inform interventions that can potentially improve quitting rates and the prognosis of cancer patients in Latin America.

Objetcive

To identify the prevalence of self-reporting of symptoms and access to testing and diagnosis of coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19), as well as its association with social determinants of health (SDH).

This article describes the introduction of the Pan American Health Organization’s HEARTS in the Americas program in Trinidad and Tobago and the successful experiences and challenges encountered in introducing and scaling it up as a strategy for strengthening the health system’s response to cardiovascular diseases. Evidence about implementation of the HEARTS program in the World Health Organization’s Region of the Americas was reviewed to identify the progress made, barriers, success factors and lessons learned.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the Region of the Americas, and hypertension is one of the main risk factors. In 2018, Argentina began implementing the HEARTS Initiative in five primary health care centers, through the National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Arterial Hypertension.

Despite effort in Latin America to implement the HEARTS initiative, hypertension control is still inadequate. There are many advances in the medical and technical arena, but little to promote political and systemic change. The vibrant civil society that has advanced policy change in tobacco control, food policy, and other public health initiatives can make a crucial contribution to prioritize hypertension control in the political agenda, ensure sustainable funding, promote the procurement of affordable and effective medications, and expand community demand for action.

HEARTS in the Americas is the Pan American Health Organization flagship program to accelerate the reduction of the cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden by improving hypertension control and CVD secondary prevention in primary health care. A monitoring and evaluation (M&E) platform is needed for program implementation, benchmarking, and informing policy-makers. This paper describes the conceptual bases of the HEARTS M&E platform including software design principles, contextualization of data collection modules, data structure, reporting, and visualization.

Objective

To compare the differences in treatment coverage of patients with systemic arterial hypertension and the proportion of patients with controlled AHT, between December 2020 and December 2021 in health facilities that implemented the HEARTS Initiative, and to explore the facilitators and barriers related to information systems in Mexico.