The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has announced a new collaboration with the Medical Research Council (MRC), detailing plans to invest over £6 million in five implementation science projects focused on tackling diabetes and hypertension in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The projects will allegedly unite with over 25 international research projects from across 40 different countries in a landmark collaboration under the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) – a unique collaboration of fifteen of the world’s largest health research funding agencies.
Through the multi-million-pound investment, the GACD is “making an important contribution to global research in low and middle-income countries and to indigenous communities and vulnerable populations in high-income settings,” explained Mark Palmer, MRC director of international relations and chair elect of the GACD.
He continued, “Each project has a unique collaboration with a research centre in a high- and low-income country. Through this alliance, funders are making a significant impact in the fight against chronic diseases at country level.”
Projects include the Bangladesh D:CLARE (Diabetes: Community-Led Awareness, Response and Evaluation) Project, a mission evaluating the role of pharmacists and m-Health strategies in the management of hypertension in General Pueyrredon and a project dubbed “CHArMING – Control of Hypertension and diabetes in Minas Gerais”.
Every year 15 million people die from a non-communicable disease, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases, and diabetes. This is the equivalent of 71% of all deaths globally, most of which occur in LMICs. Unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, exposure to tobacco smoke, the harmful use of alcohol, as well as rapid unplanned urbanisation and an ageing population, all contribute to the increase in the number of people affected.
