Project Dil: a co-ordinated Primary Care and Community Health Promotion Programme for reducing risk factors of coronary heart disease amongst the South Asian community of Leicester--experiences and evaluation of the project.
OBJECTIVE
To improve the effectiveness of primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) in volunteer Leicestershire general practices with a high percentage of South Asian patients. To increase the awareness of lifestyle risk factors amongst the South Asian community with means of reducing CHD.


METHODS
Development and implementation of: A CHD training and awareness programme for health care professionals. Organizational change to ensure adoption of an effective secondary prevention programme for general practice. A public awareness campaign including a peer education programme for the South Asian community of Leicestershire. Interim evaluation using participation data, user satisfaction and organizational development of primary care is reported.


RESULTS
A multi-disciplinary training programme accessed by 88% of staff from 23 volunteer practices has been developed and implemented. Organizational development in practices including CHD registers, action planning and establishing CHD clinics has taken place at a much faster pace than comparable non-Project Dil practices. An externally accredited peer education programme has been completed by 45 community volunteers. Within 6 months of completion, a total of 54 peer education sessions accessed by over 2,000 people from the Asian community had taken place. Project Dil, although initially funded only for 2 years, has now been adopted by Leicestershire Health Services (via a Primary Care Trust) as a mainstream programme.


CONCLUSIONS
Project Dil has made considerable progress in engaging and driving changes in general practices to facilitate improvement in CHD management. In parallel, the project has developed a community education programme, including the use of peer education. The project is now hosted by a Primary Care Trust on behalf of Leicestershire Health Services. External evaluation of the peer education programme has commenced.
Farooqi
A
A
East Leicester Medical Practice, 131 Uppingham Road, Leicester LE5 4BP, UK. Research@gp-c82063.nhs.uk
Bhavsar
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration