Creating a sustainable partnership to effectively address primordial prevention of cardiovascular disease in adolescents in Nepal

This pre-project aims to create a sustainable alliance of partners, both inside and outside academia, to focus on primordial prevention of cardiovascular disease in adolescents in Nepal. According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of disability and death globally. In 2019, 32% of all global deaths were caused by CVDs, with more than three quarters of these in low- and middle-income countries. Most CVDs can be prevented by addressing risk factors connected to behaviour and the environment which also necessitates a life course approach as well as multisectoral collaboration. To intervene as early as possible is therefore crucial. Primordial prevention is particularly promising in resource-limited settings such as in a low-income country like Nepal where around 98% of the population have at least one risk factor for CVD. To be able to create and establish a sustainable alliance of partners from Norway, Sweden, and Nepal, we require time and active engagement from partners in various sectors. Our ongoing research has provided a network of partners in Nepal within academia, such as Kathmandu Medical College and Patan Academy of Health Sciences. The network will now be expanded with several partners in Nepal that represent a broader geographic area and demographic profile than only the Kathmandu Valley as well as new partners outside academia such as the Nepal Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Alliance. We will also engage additional partners as required from Norway and Sweden with the aim to establish the optimal consortium to tackle the identified health challenge. The pre-project has activities planned for 3.5 months. Throughout this time, regular meetings will be held online as needed. Both UiT and our main partner institutions in Nepal will be involved in identifying partners. In addition, UiT will lead the engagement of stakeholders while Nepali partners will be responsible for local coordination on site.