Will Veterans Engage in Prevention After HRA-guided Shared Decision Making? (ACTIVATE)

Over half of all deaths, and many illnesses, can be attributed to four modifiable risk factors: tobacco use, overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, and alcohol use. There are clear links between these modifiable factors and heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, and stroke which continue to be the leading causes of death in the United States. Significant improvements have been made in controlling conditions that lead to heart disease, cancer and stroke (e.g., hypertension and hyperlipidemia). However, the underlying behavioral factors (e.g., obesity, tobacco use, and physical inactivity) have not been addressed as well. Prevention is particularly important for Veterans because of the high prevalence of significant risk factors for poor health. For example, more than 70% of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients are overweight (body mass index [BMI] 25kg/m2) and one-third are obese (BMI 30kg/m2), which is significantly higher than the US population. Smoking also remains a significant problem among Veterans, with VHA enrollment data from 2010 indicating a prevalence of 20%. Younger Veterans are at particularly high risk for developing chronic illnesses because they are more likely to be overweight/obese and smoke more heavily than non-Veterans.

The investigators propose a two-site, two-arm randomized trial measuring the effectiveness of a Shared Decision Making (SDM) intervention in activating Veterans to enroll in effective prevention services, and improve cardiovascular risk, compared to Veterans Administration (VA) usual care. The study will be performed at the Durham and Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Medical Centers (VAMCs). Each arm will have 225 patients; patients will be VA users with at least one modifiable risk factor (obese, inactive, or tobacco user) who are not currently enrolled in a prevention service. The SDM intervention will be conducted by a prevention coach, telephone based, and will use the output from VHA's Healthy Living Assessment (HLA) to engage Veterans in a conversation where individual preferences are matched to behaviors, and choices for specific prevention services. The resulting prevention action plan will be shared with the Veterans primary care team, and documented in the medical record.

Outcomes will be obtained at baseline, 1 month and 6 months after enrollment by blinded research personnel. The primary outcomes will be: 1) proportion enrolled in effective prevention services; and 2) change in the Patient Activation Measure (PAM). The secondary outcome is 10-year risk of coronary events, as measured by Framingham Risk Score (FRS). Process evaluations of the intervention and its implementation will also be conducted to inform future dissemination and implementation should it prove effective.