Support for Cardiovascular Health in African American Primary Care Patients

Project Overview:

Poor hypertension control has dire consequences for the African-American population who
suffer greater death and disability from heart disease, stroke, and renal failure than
whites. To reduce these health disparities it is critical to promote of a healthy lifestyle
in regard to diet, exercise, adherence to medications, as well as other behaviors. However,
physicians usually fail to address lifestyle behaviors in the context of the harried patient
visit. Therefore, the investigators hypothesized that the investigators could reduce
cardiovascular risk by providing additional support to persons with poorly controlled
hypertension through phone calls from trained peer patients and visits to an office support
staff member.

Study Design:

A single-blind, randomized, controlled trial in 250 African-American primary care patients
aged 40-75 with poorly controlled hypertension (HTN). The intervention group receives a
practice-based team intervention that combines peer coach with office staff (i.e., medical
assistant or licensed practice nurse) visits to address lifestyle challenges. Both
intervention and control groups receive informational materials and healthy soul food
recipes from the American Heart Association. The 6 month intervention alternates monthly
phone calls from peer coaches about lifestyle behavioral changes with office-based visits
with the support staff member during which patients review and discuss low literacy slide
shows about healthy behaviors as well as examine their personal cardiovascular risk profile.