BETTER HEALTH: Durham

Summary

The BETTER intervention consists of supportive meetings between a specially trained prevention practitioner nurse and individuals aged 40-64 years to review recommended chronic disease prevention and screening activities (CDPS). The prevention practitioner nurse will assist participants to identify goals for accomplishing CDPS activities in the next 6 months. Promotion, recruitment of participants and delivery of the BETTER intervention will be adapted to meet the needs of the residents through the use of participatory research methods and community engagement strategies. The study population consists of individuals aged 40-64 years living in 10 designated areas or "clusters" within Durham Region in Oshawa and Whitby.

Objectives:

1. Help people in the designated areas identify personal goals related to chronic disease prevention and screening activities.
2. Evaluate whether the prevention practitioner was effective in helping people achieve their goals and explore whether this type of intervention could work in other settings.
3. Share what the investigators learn with government and other public health units in Ontario and across Canada.

Some clusters will receive the BETTER intervention right away and other clusters will be in a wait-list control group to receive the intervention 6 months later. Our main outcome is the change in a score that considers the number of preventive health items a person has achieved during the 6 months. The investigators will also be doing in-depth interviews and focus groups with health care providers, community organizations and people who live in the designated areas to understand whether the primary practitioner was effective.

Conditions

• Cancer and Chronic Disease Prevention

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Immediate Intervention

The 'BETTER' prevention practitioner intervention involves assessment of a person's current participation, or lack of participation, among domains of evidence-based chronic disease prevention and surveillance (CDPS) actions. The assessment is followed several days later by a supportive meeting with a prevention practitioner nurse, using principles of shared decision making and health coaching, to establish goals for accomplishing CDPS activities of the individual's choice during the subsequent six months to develop personal goals and targets for participating in CDPS actions during the following six months. In BETTER HEALTH: DURHAM, the prevention practitioner nurse will be a public health nurse from the Durham Region Health Department.

OTHER

Wait List Intervention

The control arm will receive the prevention practitioner intervention 6 months after the intervention arm. Their outcomes will not be assessed in the study.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

  collaborator OTHER

• Durham Region Health Department

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Toronto

  collaborator OTHER

• Unity Health Toronto

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lawrence Paszat · Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

40 Years

Max Age

64 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-10-02

Primary Completion

2020-01-28

Completion

2020-01-28

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations