Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Risk Reduction in Women Vets

October 6, 2020 updated by: VA Office of Research and Development

Facilitating Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Risk Reduction in Women Veterans (QUE 15-272)

Background: Women Veterans are the fastest growing segment of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) users. This dramatic growth has created challenges for VHA. Gender disparities persist in cardiovascular (CV) and diabetes risk factor control, and rates of depression, anxiety, and mental health comorbidity are disproportionately high among women Veterans. Furthermore, a high rate of women Veterans' attrition from VA care, along with organizational barriers to care, substantiate that organizational changes are needed in order to engage and retain women Veteran VHA users in evidence-based, patient-centered care.

Objectives: The Enhancing Mental and Physical health of Women through Engagement and Retention (EMPOWER) QUERI addresses VHA Blueprint for Excellence Strategy 6, by advancing "personalized, proactive, patient-centered" care models, and Transformational Strategy 7.2.g by implementation of innovative care models in women Veterans' health care." The EMPOWER QUERI Program is designed to improve women Veterans' engagement and retention in evidence-based care for three high priority health conditions, i.e., prediabetes, cardiovascular, and mental health. To achieve this impact goal, we propose a cohesive portfolio of projects with the following aims: (1) To use an evidence-based implementation strategy that emphasizes local tailoring of care models, multilevel stakeholder engagement, and systematic evaluation of complex implementation processes in order to enrich organizational capacity for innovations in women Veterans' VHA health care; (2) To implement personalized, proactive, patient-centered innovations in VHA women's health that are acceptable, feasible, satisfactory, relevant, and effective for both providers and patients, thereby encouraging women Veterans' engagement and retention and sustainability of the innovations; and, (3) To generate implementation "playbooks" for our partners that are scalable and serve as guidance for future implementation of a broader array of evidence-based women's health programs and policy.

Methods: Three projects will be conducted by an experienced multidisciplinary team. "Tailoring VA's Diabetes Prevention Program to Women Veterans' Needs" is a one-year QI project to be conducted in VA Greater Los Angeles women's health clinics. Women Veterans with prediabetes will select an in-person, peer-led or online gender-specific, evidence-based diabetes prevention program to address their risk behaviors and health conditions. "Facilitating Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Risk Reduction in Women Veterans" will increase identification of CV risk among women Veterans, enhance patient/provider communication and shared decision-making about CV risk, and provide a supportive, coordinated health coaching intervention to facilitate women Veterans' engagement and retention in appropriate health services. "Implementation of Tailored Collaborative Care for Women Veterans" will evaluate implementation of an evidence-based collaborative care model tailored to enhance provider- and system-level capabilities to address women Veterans' anxiety and depression treatment needs, thereby improving organizational primary care-mental health integration (PC-MHI) effectiveness and women Veterans' engagement and retention in PC-MHI. Both implementation research studies will use a modified stepped wedge design and will apply the evidence-based Replicating Effective Programs (REP) implementation strategy. Mixed methods implementation evaluations will focus on investigating primary implementation outcomes of adoption, acceptability, feasibility, and reach. Multilevel stakeholder engagement will be prioritized. Program-wide organizational-, provider-, and patient-level measures and tools will be utilized to enhance synergy, productivity, and impact. As a coherent program of women's health implementation research and quality improvement, the proposed EMPOWER QUERI will constitute a major milestone in achieving BPE strategies and realizing women Veterans' engagement and, ultimately, empowerment in our VHA system.

Study Overview

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

254

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • California
      • Sepulveda, California, United States, 91343
        • VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Sepulveda, CA
      • West Los Angeles, California, United States, 90073
        • VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, West Los Angeles, CA
    • Connecticut
      • West Haven, Connecticut, United States, 06516
        • VA Connecticut Healthcare System West Haven Campus, West Haven, CT
    • Texas
      • San Antonio, Texas, United States, 78229
        • South Texas Health Care System, San Antonio, TX

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • For Patient Activities: Women VA patients with any cardiovascular risk factors
  • For Key Stakeholder Activities: VA staff affiliated with the Women's Health Clinic

Exclusion Criteria:

  • For Patient Activities: Men & Patients with cognitive impairment precluding informed consent
  • For Key Stakeholder Activities: non- VA staff

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Arm 1
The investigators will use a nonrandomized stepped wedge design to evaluate the implementation in four VA Women's Practice Based Research Network (PBRN) sites. In this nonrandomized stepped wedge design, the intervention is "turned on" when a primary care provider (PCP) uses a CV screening template which maps to the patient CV self-screener. This design relies on sequential roll-out to participating sites over time, while using other sites as controls until they begin implementation. The investigators will use nonrandomized stepped wedges (rather than randomized) given their suitability for studying implementation. The design explicitly considers the timing of implementation spread and addresses the statistical issues introduced by lack of randomization in implementation starts and processes. The investigators will analytically compensate for the design by collecting patient-, provider-, and site-level data that may be associated with timing of the adoption of each intervention.
  • Patient completes a CV self screener.
  • Patient discusses CV risks factors with primary care providers and CV risks are documented and discussed for action steps and referrals.
  • Patient will be recommended to attend a gender tailored facilitated workgroup - Gateways to Healthy Living to make specific SMART goals and commit to patient preferred services or program

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Referrals to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Services
Time Frame: 6 months
Examples include smoking cessation, dietitian, MOVE program or other weight loss/physical activity programs, pharmacy services, facilitated groups, Health Coaching services, specialty services, and other programs.
6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Altarum Consumer Engagement (ACE)
Time Frame: 6 months
Brief measure of patient engagement in care
6 months
PROMIS Global Health
Time Frame: 6 months
Brief measure of global health
6 months
Patient Satisfaction
Time Frame: 6 months
Global rating of patient satisfaction/quality of care
6 months
Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale (OASIS)
Time Frame: 6 months
Brief measure of anxiety
6 months
Depression screen (PHQ-4)
Time Frame: 6 months
Brief measure of depression symptoms
6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Bevanne A Bean-Mayberry, MD MHS, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, West Los Angeles, CA
  • Principal Investigator: Melissa M Farmer Coste, PhD MS, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Sepulveda, CA

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 15, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 30, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

September 30, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 9, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 9, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

December 13, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 8, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 6, 2020

Last Verified

October 1, 2020

More Information

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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