Heart Health Buddies: Peer Support to Decrease CVD Risk (HHB)

Heart Health Buddies: Peer Support to Decrease Cardiovascular Risk (CDA 13-263)

This pilot study will use a hybrid reciprocal peer support and peer coach model to initiate and sustain heart-healthy behavioral changes in Veterans. Veterans who are at-risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) will be enrolled in the study and paired with another Veteran to receive and provide social support around engaging in CVD risk reduction behaviors. Enrolled participants will be offered a series of 3 group sessions focused on CVD risk reduction, goal setting and action plan development. Between group sessions, peer partners will be asked to have weekly calls to discuss action plan challenges, explore options for problem solving, and provide encouragement and accountability for personal goals. Participants who do not engage in the group sessions or weekly phone calls, or who request additional help, will receive support from trained peer coaches. The goal of this pilot study is to evaluate the proof of concept for a hybrid reciprocal peer support (RPS) and peer coach intervention to improve heart healthy behaviors among Veterans at risk for CVD.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cardiovascular Disease
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: reciprocal peer support and non reciprocal coach support

Detailed Description

A total of 24 Veterans enrolled at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center will be screened and enrolled. Eligible Veterans are 35-64 years old, with at least one uncontrolled or poorly controlled risk factor for CVD. In addition, 3-6 veterans will be enrolled and trained as heart health peer coaches, with eligibility being 35-64 years old, with at least one documented CVD factor who have sustained improvement in physical activity or dietary change in the previous 3-6 months. All participants complete a baseline assessment, three structured group meetings, and a 12 week post-intervention assessment. At the first group, each participant creates a behavioral goal, and peer partners are paired with another Veteran based on behavioral goal and gender. They are expected to call their peer once a week to discuss progress or difficulty with their action plan and support each other with problem solving. Post enrollment and prior to the first group meeting, Peer coaches will have 3-5 hours of motivational and communication training with study staff focusing on skills such as active listening, non-directive support, eliciting change-talk, promoting incremental change, and patient confidentiality. Peer coaches will interact with peer buddies during a) group sessions, b) at a 6 week phone check-in, and c) on-going support if needed. Additional support will be initiated if there are no phone calls between pairs, there is a lack of participant engagement in calls to partner or attending group sessions, or upon request by the peer. There are two Aims of the current pilot study. Aim 1: examine the feasibility and acceptability of a 12-week hybrid peer coach-reciprocal peer support intervention. Feasibility will be evaluated by ease of recruitment, and enrollment and retention rates. Acceptability will be assessed by self-report of amount, frequency and modality of contacts, participation rates for group sessions, and through post-intervention qualitative interviews.

Aim 2: explore gender differences in feasibility/acceptability of the hybrid peer support model. Gender differences will be evaluated through qualitative comparison of participant reported experiences with intervention content as well as peer and group interactions by gender; and, quantitatively via exploration of differences in enrollment, retention, refusal reasons and frequency of peer contacts.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 15
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27705-3875
      • Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 35 years to 64 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Peer partners and peer coaches:

• Enrolled in a Durham Veterans Administration Health Care System primary care clinic (including the women's health clinic)

• At risk for cardiovascular disease as defined by having at least one of the following:

  • Uncontrolled hypertension
  • history of obesity defined as (BMI >30)
  • uncontrolled non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus
  • In addition, Peer coaches have made and sustained a behavioral change in past 3-6 months to improve heart health
• English as preferred language
• no significant hearing impairment
• lives approximately 30 minutes from the Durham Veterans affairs Medical Center
• agrees to attend regular visits per study protocol
• no contraindication to engage in at least moderate physical activity
• willing to use personal phone for peer and coach contacts

Exclusion Criteria:

• insulin-dependent diabetes
• serious mental illness defined as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dementia, active psychosis psychiatric hospitalization within the last 12 months or current high-risk suicide flag in their electronic medical record
• active substance use as documented in electronic or positive screening during telephone screening
• limited Life expectancy (<6 months) or severely ill defined as enrolled in hospice or actively undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy for cancer
• currently pregnant or planning to become pregnant in next 6 months

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: peer partner; Veterans with at least one CVD risk factor who are interesting in increasing heart healthy behaviors through peer support	Behavioral: reciprocal peer support and non reciprocal coach support; Peers and peer coaches provide mutual or one-way support to initiate and sustain behavioral improvements for cardiovascular health, with additional education from study staff.
Other: peer coach; Veterans with at least one CVD risk factor who have made and sustained changes in diet or exercise in the past 3-6 months prior to enrollment. While the investigators will collect data on peer coach participants, their participation is primarily as part of intervention to examine the feasibility and benefit of adding peer coaching to a peer partner intervention.	Behavioral: reciprocal peer support and non reciprocal coach support; Peers and peer coaches provide mutual or one-way support to initiate and sustain behavioral improvements for cardiovascular health, with additional education from study staff.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Feasibility of Enrollment	Number of participants contacted, screened and enrolled in the pilot	12 weeks
Feasibility Retention	Retention rates from consent to enrollment and from enrollment to completion of study.	12 weeks
Acceptability	Acceptability of study based on successful peer buddy contacts per pair (not applicable to coaches) and participation in group sessions.	12 weeks
Acceptability - Weeks Contact With Peer Buddy	Acceptability of study based on successful peer buddy contacts per pair (not applicable to coaches)	12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Gender Differences - Retention	Quantitative and qualitative gender differences in feasibility and acceptance will be evaluated through quantitative differences in enrollment, retention and frequency of peer contacts, and qualitative comparison of participant-reported experiences with intervention content, peer and group interactions by gender. Data are presented only for reciprocal peer partner group as this was pre-specified to compare outcomes between men and women in the reciprocal peer partner group. Thus, peer coaches are not described in this outcome.	12 weeks
Gender Differences-enrollment	Quantitative and qualitative gender differences in feasibility and acceptance will be evaluated through quantitative differences in enrollment, retention and frequency of peer contacts, and qualitative comparison of participant-reported experiences with intervention content, peer and group interactions by gender. Data are presented only for reciprocal peer partner group as this was pre-specified to compare outcomes between men and women in the reciprocal peer partner group. Thus, peer coaches are not described in this outcome.	12 weeks
Gender Differences - Mean Contacts Per Buddy Pair	Quantitative and qualitative gender differences in feasibility and acceptance will be evaluated through quantitative differences in enrollment, retention and frequency of peer contacts, and qualitative comparison of participant-reported experiences with intervention content, peer and group interactions by gender.	12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Karen Goldstein, MD MSPH, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 26, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 15, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): March 15, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 23, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 23, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): August 24, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 27, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 19, 2023
• Last Verified: July 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: cardiovascular disease; social support
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Cardiovascular Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: CDX 18-005

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Participants will be given personal feedback during the course of the study, such as during their baseline and 12 week assessments (weight, bp, and exercise scores), and via an activity monitor they will wear to monitor their daily activity. Participants will receive individual feedback, but as this is a feasibility study we do not intend to share study outcome results with participants.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No