Impact of a community-based rehabilitation intervention on the disability experienced by Mayan adults living with chronic diseases: 

A syndemic-based evaluation

with Dr. Adalberto Loyola-Sanchez

Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 12 - 12:50 pm

Location: Zoom and ECHA 4-036 (hybrid event)

 

Through this presentation, Dr. Loyola-Sanchez will introduce the concept of syndemics to understand the complexity of chronic health conditions.  He will then describe the results of a community-based intervention evaluation utilizing a syndemic approach and reflect on future directions to decrease the disabling effects of chronic diseases in rural Indigenous communities.    

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Dr. Adalberto Loyola-Sanchez is currently appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. His work focuses on developing a program of research to design, implement and evaluate community-based rehabilitation programs for people living in outreach communities with disabilities produced by chronic illnesses. He completed his medical and specialty training in Mexico City and his research training at McMaster University and the University of Calgary. Since then, Loyola Sanchez has been working on developing a program of mixed methods research to design, implement and evaluate community-based rehabilitation programs for people living with disabilities produced by chronic illnesses mainly in underserved communities. This program focuses on implementing community-based participatory action research projects for underserved populations (such as those in Indigenous rural communities in Mexico) living with chronic musculoskeletal conditions and for people living with complex chronic neurological disabilities, such as spinal cord injuries or disorders, in Alberta.

He currently works in the spinal cord injury program at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton and is leading several community-based participatory mixed methods research projects directed to improve the participation of people living with disabilities in rural Mexico and Alberta. Read more here.