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By Linda Carroll
(Reuters Health) – New research shows that lifestyle interventions by community health workers in churches can help reduce blood pressure among African Americans.
Hypertensive church members who attended weekly lifestyle-modification sessions recorded an average drop of more than 16 points in systolic blood pressure, researchers reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
The new study shows that "a lifestyle-related behavior modification program that is typically put in place by the health system can be implemented in a religious setting," said the co-author, Dr. Gbenga Ogedegbe, Professor of Population Health and Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine in New York.
Populations affected by this intervention often have less access to medical care, Ogedegbe said.
The new study, dubbed FAITH (Faith Based Approaches in the Treatment of Hypertension), included 373 black men and women whose blood pressure was at least 140/90 mmHg or 130 / 80 mmHg in people with diabetes or chronic kidney problems. disease. Participants were all present in 32 African American churches.
In half of the churches, participants received the full intervention, including 11 90-minute sessions focused on recommended behavioral changes for health, such as adoption of a poor diet in salt and fat and rich in fruits and vegetables, increased physical activity and weight loss. Ogedegbe said. The session schedule was tailored to church members in that it included prayers, scripture, and faith-related discussion related to health. In addition to the 11 sessions, participants also received three motivational phone calls.
In the other churches, participants attended only one session on lifestyle management and hypertension, followed by 10 additional sessions on health education topics led by health experts.
At six months, the systolic blood pressure of all the groups fell sharply (the top number corresponding to the pressure when the heart pumps the blood towards the body). The full-intervention group saw its systolic pressure drop on average by 16.53 mmHg, while the control group experienced an average reduction of 10.74 mmHg.
The difference between the groups pushes Ogedegbe and his colleagues to refine their intervention to make it even more effective.
The new findings are not surprising for Naa-Solo Tettey, Cardiovascular Health Education and Outreach Coordinator with the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute and HeartSmarts Director of the NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medical Center. New York.
"Working with faith-based organizations creates a kind of structure," said Tettey. "The weekly sessions they organized were similar to those of other religious programs, and you see changes in the health outcomes."
Tettey believes that the secret of success lies in long-term interventions, like the one used in the new study.
"More than just an initial intervention, you need some kind of health coaching," she said. "I've found that there was a major shift in nutrition.People do not know what a healthy diet is, so it's important to have a nutritionist at home." edge."
An even more effective approach might be to include some of the health messages in the current worship, suggests Tettey. "The idea is to establish a link between the body's temple and healthy behaviors," she explained. "We use scripture to help them communicate with the message, if your body is a temple, it's important to know how you treat it."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2NC3A0g Circulation: Quality and Cardiovascular Outcomes, Online 9 October 2018.
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