Cama/Lostallo

The Cama / Lostallo location

The project was initiated and first conducted in Cama/Lostallo.
Today, the team consists of one physician and four medical practice assistants with many years of professional experience. All enjoy working closely with people and are motivated to make a contribution to prevention and research through this study.

The Cama/Lostallo practice in pictures

The Cama / Lostallo Team

Franco Muggli

Tiziana

Tiziana Tschudi

Morena Giudicetti

Patrizia Venzin

Barblina De Tann

"HEALTH CAPITAL" Project - Brief Explanation

History

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death and serious illness in Switzerland. It is important to learn more about the factors responsible for this unfavorable condition. If the factors are known, it is possible to adjust prevention measures over time to improve prevention. For this purpose, a group of Swiss professionals had the idea to promote a study similar to another study that was started in the 1950s and is still ongoing in the United States. In 1948, when very little was known about the causes of cardiovascular diseases and strokes, a highly ambitious research project began: the Framingham Heart Study. Framingham is a small town in the United States. Over the course of several years, more than 5,000 individuals (men and women aged between 30 to 62 years) participated in the project. Thanks to the information collected, the harmful significance of high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, smoking, diabetes, obesity, and lack of exercise for the development of severe heart and circulatory diseases could be recognized.

Such a study has never been conducted in Switzerland, and there are several reasons to run such a study in Switzerland. Firstly, due to differences between the American and the Swiss population, the results and the consequences on prevention strategies may be different. Secondly, given the increasing life expectancy and demographic changes, it becomes increasingly important to observe how the health status of our community evolves with advancing age and to adjust future prevention measures based on the results of the surveys conducted.

The Goal

The goal of the “Health Capital” project is to encourage participants to consider their own health as the real “capital” that needs to be recognized and preserved. For this reason, tests have been selected to obtain a snapshot of psychophysical health, with a focus on cardiovascular risk factors. Based on the test results, each participant can then decide, in consultation with their primary care physician, which strategies to adopt to ensure the preservation of this “capital”. Specifically, prevention, particularly of cardiovascular diseases, which are often the cause of disabling complications, is promoted.

The Project

By establishing a small community (cohort), whose health status is regularly evaluated over several decades, useful information can be obtained and shared to improve prevention measures.

To this end, we have chosen a community that is not too large (around a thousand inhabitants), where generations are well represented, which is also stable and relatively homogeneous, and above all, one that is enthusiastic about the importance of supporting and participating in such an initiative.

The Procedure

All participants receive a questionnaire about their own health and that of their family members, as well as their lifestyle habits (physical activity, diet). Subsequently, memory tests, traditional measurements and examinations (weight, height, blood pressure, electrocardiogram, lung capacity, vision and hearing) are performed, along with blood and urine tests. Additionally, examinations of heart sounds, evaluation of breathing during sleep, and arterial stiffness assessment are proposed. Approximately two months after the test, each participant receives a complete record of their health status, along with instructions to consult their primary care physician if necessary. The time commitment is about 90 minutes. Each examination result is registered with an ID to ensure anonymity.

The Future

The great challenge of this project is that it will be repeated every 5 years over a period of 20 years. This will provide important information about the health status development of a sample from the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, which is relatively stable in terms of habits and socio-economic and cultural characteristics. The question we aim to answer is: Which factors are decisive or predictive for a positive or negative change in the “health capital” as identified in the initial survey?

 

Cama, August 2015

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