Cut Your Pressure Too: The Altadena Barbershop Blood Pressure Study, Phase 2 (Intervention Pilot Study)

Summary

African American men have the highest risk of any group for early death \& disability from high blood pressure (BP). Clinical investigations in Dallas, TX demonstrated that African American men with high BP are able to improve their BPs when participants agree to have their BP measured at their barbershop by their barber \& also take BP reducing medication as instructed by a healthcare team that includes their doctor. The goal of this study is to bring a barbershop-based model of BP measurement, treatment \& follow-up from Dallas, TX to the Southern California area. This study is the 2nd of two "Barbershop" studies at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The 1st study was called the "Barber-Based Intervention for Hypertension in Black Men: Baseline Data Collection." In this 2nd study at Wally's barbershop, the Investigators will enlist pharmacists to integrate the community health promotion program in barbershops into the healthcare system. Barbers are uniquely positioned to facilitate hypertension case detection \& referral, pharmacists are uniquely positioned to facilitate case management. Pharmacists have extensive knowledge of BP medication \& they have earned the respect of patients and physicians alike. In this intervention study, barbers will be trained to measure the BP \& refer those who have already been identified as having high BP to a community pharmacist for confirmation of uncontrolled high BP \& development of a BP management plan. The pharmacist will work with the customers' physicians to optimize the BP medication prescribed \& with individual customers to provide a user-friendly "medical home." Pharmacists will improve the customer's access to state-of-the-art medical care, The data from this study will be used to apply for a new NIH Grant. In addition, the summarized data will be shared with key stakeholders in the local community (including barbers, patrons, local healthcare providers, local pharmacists \& other community leaders) to design a larger community-partnered intervention.

Specific Aims:

Aim 1. To evaluate the impact of the new intervention model on HTN control in African American males.

Aim 2. To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the new intervention. The investigators hypothesize that the projected cost-savings to the healthcare system in reduced heart attack \& stroke care will outweigh intervention \& medication costs.

Conditions

• Hypertension

Interventions

OTHER

barbershop-based BP measurement

BP Measurements and blood pressure reducing medication

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

  collaborator NIH

• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ronald Victor, MD · Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

• Jeffery Wilkins, MD · Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-08-31

Primary Completion

2013-06-30

Completion

2013-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations