Advising public health action to prevent and control chronic disease, risk factors and oral health disparities in puerto rico - the puerto rico department of health (prdoh) is the leading agency for…

Advising public health action to prevent and control chronic disease, risk factors and oral health disparities in puerto rico - the puerto rico department of health (prdoh) is the leading agency for preventing, controlling, and managing chronic diseases across the jurisdiction. For the past years, the prevention and control of chronic conditions section (pcccs) of the prdoh has had the mission of implementing evidence-based initiatives to work with these types of diseases, as well as associated risk factors. The main purpose of this application is to implement diverse approaches to promote healthy behaviors, manage and control chronic diseases, and address risk factors. These initiatives are focused on the prevention and reduction of tobacco use (including e-cigarettes) and secondhand smoke exposure, improvement in the prevention and management of diabetes and related complications, prevention of individuals with pre-diabetes from developing type 2 diabetes and addressing oral health disparities in puerto rico. The strategies and activities included were chosen from the notice of funding opportunity CDC-RFA-DP-25-0024 and incorporated all five (5) strategies for the core component and three (3) strategies for the optional oral health component. The main outcomes expected for the core component are: increased reach of prediabetes awareness messages both in the general population and among healthcare professionals; increased engagement of clinical and public health team members in the NCD collaborative; improved quality and availability of diabetes management and care services; improved health outcomes among people with diabetes; increased public and decision-maker awareness and knowledge of the risks of chronic disease, including the dangers of tobacco use and the effectiveness of tobacco control interventions and social norm change; increased awareness about the benefits of smoke-free environments and increased support for them; increased culturally appropriate health communication interventions and messages to reach both the general population and populations experiencing tobacco-related disparities; increased health systems that routinely screen for tobacco use, advise tobacco users to quit, and promote and support evidence-based services to help people quit using tobacco; decreased exposure to tobacco marketing; increased implementation and compliance with tobacco control policies, including comprehensive smoke-free policies; reduced access to tobacco products and reduced social norms accepting of tobacco use; increased engagement and coordination of partners to improve access to and use of culturally appropriate, evidence-based services to help people quit using tobacco; decreased tobacco use among adults and adolescents; increase implementation of evidence-based interventions to reduce morbidity, mortality, and disparities due to ncds and risk factors, including those related to tobacco. The oral health component includes: increased dissemination of data on oral disease, risk factors (such as tobacco use or medical and dental visits among adults with type 2 diabetes), and use of preventive oral health services; increased awareness and use of dental IPC recommendations and resources, especially among ebpds programs and other dental programs or facilities serving communities with oral health disparities; reduced disparities in receipt of evidence-based preventive dental services (ebpds) across populations with a large burden of oral health disparities.