Sri Lanka Healthy Lifestyle Centres Programme

A Sri Lankan Ministry of Health service, initiated in 2011 to give the country a structured noncommunicable disease screening service at the lowest tier of its primary health care system, where none had previously existed in an organized form. Healthy Lifestyle Centres are free, state-owned facilities that screen adults, chiefly those between roughly 35 and 65 years old, for major noncommunicable disease risk factors and apply the World Health Organization and International Society of Hypertension total cardiovascular risk approach: clients whose ten-year cardiovascular risk exceeds 30 percent are referred to specialized clinics, while others receive lifestyle-modification counselling and are asked to return for periodic rescreening based on their risk level. Studies of the programme have found it underutilized, particularly by men, and have identified weak staff adherence to protocols, incomplete integration with pre-existing NCD screening services, and limited human resources as ongoing barriers to the centres reaching their full intended reach.