Using Lay Health Advisors to Improve Hypertension Management

Using Lay Health Advisors to Help African Americans Address the Social Context of Hypertension Management

Hypertension disproportionately affects and is inadequately controlled among African American and poor populations. The investigators propose to determine the impact of using trained lay health advisors to help patients address social contextual factors that influence the management of hypertension.

Study Overview

• Status: Terminated
• Conditions: Hypertension
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Lay Health Advisor

Detailed Description

Hypertension disproportionately affects and is inadequately controlled among African American and poor populations. Health providers generally lack the skills and resources to address social contextual factors (i.e. health and community services, social networks, social stressors, physical environment, and economic resources) that influence management of hypertension. Instead, providers tend to focus on adjusting antihypertensive medication prescriptions and exhorting patients to exercise and eat better. The investigators propose to determine the impact of using trained lay health advisors to help patients address social contextual factors that influence the management of hypertension. Helping patients address these barriers may lead not only to improved blood pressure but also to increased survival, reduced organ damage, and decreased health care costs. This project may also serve as a model of healthcare delivery innovation that could be used to address other health disparity conditions.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 69
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 44109
      • The MetroHealth System

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 64 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• At least 2 outpatient blood pressures with systolic >140 or diastolic >90 mm Hg in last 6 months. Separate occurrences at least 1 day apart
• Age 18-59 years
• Non-diabetic
• Preserved kidney function (glomerular filtration rate >60 ml/min)
• English speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

• Mentally incompetent
• Pregnant
• Terminal illness
• Active substance abuse
• Documented coronary, peripheral arterial, or cerebrovascular disease

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Lay Health Advisors; Intervention patients will meet monthly in small groups with a trained Lay Health Advisor.	Behavioral: Lay Health Advisor; Patients will meet regularly Lay Health Advisors who will address the social context of their hypertension.
No Intervention: Usual Care; Control patients will receive usual care from their doctors.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in systolic and diastolic blood pressure	Difference between final and initial systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings	1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in quality of life.	Differences in quality of life between final and initial measurements using the 12 item short form survey (SF-12). The SF-12 provides physical and mental health composite scores ranging from 0 (lowest level of health) to 100 (highest level of health)	1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: MetroHealth Medical Center
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: John D Thornton, MD, MPH, The MetroHealth System

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Egan BM, Li J, Hutchison FN, Ferdinand KC. Hypertension in the United States, 1999 to 2012: progress toward Healthy People 2020 goals. Circulation. 2014 Nov 4;130(19):1692-9. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.010676. Epub 2014 Oct 20.
• James SA, Van Hoewyk J, Belli RF, Strogatz DS, Williams DR, Raghunathan TE. Life-course socioeconomic position and hypertension in African American men: the Pitt County Study. Am J Public Health. 2006 May;96(5):812-7. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2005.076158. Epub 2006 Mar 29.
• Matthews KA, Kiefe CI, Lewis CE, Liu K, Sidney S, Yunis C; Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA). Socioeconomic trajectories and incident hypertension in a biracial cohort of young adults. Hypertension. 2002 Mar 1;39(3):772-6. doi: 10.1161/hy0302.105682.
• Cook S, Drum ML, Kirchhoff AC, Jin L, Levie J, Harrison JF, Lippold SA, Schaefer CT, Chin MH. Providers' assessment of barriers to effective management of hypertension and hyperlipidemia in community health centers. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2006 Feb;17(1):70-85. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2006.0021.
• Mercuri M, Sherbino J, Sedran RJ, Frank JR, Gafni A, Norman G. When guidelines don't guide: the effect of patient context on management decisions based on clinical practice guidelines. Acad Med. 2015 Feb;90(2):191-6. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000542.
• Borzecki AM, Oliveria SA, Berlowitz DR. Barriers to hypertension control. Am Heart J. 2005 May;149(5):785-94. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2005.01.047. No abstract available.
• Hill MN, Bone LR, Hilton SC, Roary MC, Kelen GD, Levine DM. A clinical trial to improve high blood pressure care in young urban black men: recruitment, follow-up, and outcomes. Am J Hypertens. 1999 Jun;12(6):548-54. doi: 10.1016/s0895-7061(99)00007-2.
• Dennison CR, Post WS, Kim MT, Bone LR, Cohen D, Blumenthal RS, Rame JE, Roary MC, Levine DM, Hill MN. Underserved urban african american men: hypertension trial outcomes and mortality during 5 years. Am J Hypertens. 2007 Feb;20(2):164-71. doi: 10.1016/j.amjhyper.2006.08.003.
• Rose LE, Kim MT, Dennison CR, Hill MN. The contexts of adherence for African Americans with high blood pressure. J Adv Nurs. 2000 Sep;32(3):587-94. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01538.x.
• Russell E, Johnson B, Larsen H, Novilla ML, van Olmen J, Swanson RC. Health systems in context: a systematic review of the integration of the social determinants of health within health systems frameworks. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2013 Dec;34(6):461-7.
• Wong K, Smalarz A, Wu N, Boulanger L, Wogen J. The association between hypertension-specific care management processes and blood pressure outcomes in US-based physician organizations. J Am Soc Hypertens. 2011 Nov-Dec;5(6):505-12. doi: 10.1016/j.jash.2011.08.002. Epub 2011 Oct 1.
• Jackson EJ, Parks CP. Recruitment and training issues from selected lay health advisor programs among African Americans: a 20-year perspective. Health Educ Behav. 1997 Aug;24(4):418-31. doi: 10.1177/109019819702400403.
• Dye CJ, Williams JE, Evatt JH. Improving hypertension self-management with community health coaches. Health Promot Pract. 2015 Mar;16(2):271-81. doi: 10.1177/1524839914533797. Epub 2014 May 16.
• Margolius D, Bodenheimer T, Bennett H, Wong J, Ngo V, Padilla G, Thom DH. Health coaching to improve hypertension treatment in a low-income, minority population. Ann Fam Med. 2012 May-Jun;10(3):199-205. doi: 10.1370/afm.1369.
• Brownstein JN, Chowdhury FM, Norris SL, Horsley T, Jack L Jr, Zhang X, Satterfield D. Effectiveness of community health workers in the care of people with hypertension. Am J Prev Med. 2007 May;32(5):435-47. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2007.01.011.
• Krieger J, Collier C, Song L, Martin D. Linking community-based blood pressure measurement to clinical care: a randomized controlled trial of outreach and tracking by community health workers. Am J Public Health. 1999 Jun;89(6):856-61. doi: 10.2105/ajph.89.6.856.
• Connell P, Wolfe C, McKevitt C. Preventing stroke: a narrative review of community interventions for improving hypertension control in black adults. Health Soc Care Community. 2008 Mar;16(2):165-87. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2524.2007.00737.x.
• Margolius D, Wong J, Goldman ML, Rouse-Iniguez J, Bodenheimer T. Delegating responsibility from clinicians to nonprofessional personnel: the example of hypertension control. J Am Board Fam Med. 2012 Mar-Apr;25(2):209-15. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2012.02.100279.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 3, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 29, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 21, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): May 3, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 14, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 9, 2021
• Last Verified: April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Hypertension; Health Equity; Community Health Workers; Community-Based Participatory Research
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Cardiovascular Diseases; Vascular Diseases; Hypertension
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB18-00038

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No