Mariano M. Yáñez-Cesti, Escuela de Posgrado, Universidad César Vallejo; Subregión de Salud Luciano Castillo Colonna, Sullana. Piura, Perú
Elmer B. Salazar-Salazar, Escuela de Posgrado, Universidad César Vallejo, Piura, Perú
Cristhian O. Ramírez-Valladares, Escuela de Posgrado, Universidad César Vallejo, Piura, Perú
Background: Hypertension is the leading modifiable cardiovascular risk factor, and reducing its burden depends on the effective implementation of prevention and control programs at the primary care level. Objectives: To describe the perceived level of implementation of hypertension prevention and control programs and institutional management capacity in a health subregion in Northern Peru, and to explore their relationship. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 129 health workers from the Luciano Castillo Colonna Health Subregion (Sullana, Piura, Peru) selected by simple random sampling from a population of 194. Two self-administered 15-item Likert-type questionnaires were used, with content validity established by expert judgment and high reliability. The primary analysis was descriptive; the relationship between variables was explored secondarily using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Results: Overall, 63% of participants perceived a low level of program implementation, and 68% perceived a low level of institutional management capacity. In the exploratory analysis, both perceptions were positively correlated (rho = 0.869; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Perceptions of low implementation of hypertension prevention and control programs and low institutional management capacity predominated in the studied subregion. The positive correlation observed between both perceptions suggests a close link between institutional management and program functioning, and highlights the need to strengthen planning, organization, monitoring, and feedback processes at the primary care level.
Keywords: ypertension. Primary health care. Program implementation. Health management. Cardiovascular diseases. Peru.