Impact of a Health and Mental Health Promotion Intervention Among Jordanians and Syrians.

Summary

Given the heightened risk of NCDs and mental health issues, it is critical for Jordanians and Syrian refugees to have access to prevention based health services. To address this need, the following project seeks to examine the capacity of Primary Care Health Centers to provide preventive services to empower patients to manage NCDs and potential mental health issues for those who are experiencing distress.

The primary research question in this evaluation study is:

Does prevention-based health and mental health services in primary health clinics improve health status of Jordanians and Syrian refugees?

This research proposal will consist of three study conditions examining:

* Condition 1: an existing NCD preventive intervention consisting of 24 sessions, which are 45 minutes covering diabetes, hypertension, obesity, reproductive health, cardiovascular diseases, allergies and smoking;
* Condition 2: The existing NCD preventive intervention with 4 added mental health awareness sessions covering traumatic stress reactions, individual strategies for coping with stress and traumatic events and collective strategies for coping with stress and trauma;
* Condition 3: Treatment as usual

A group randomized study will be conducted in three clinics with patients of the respective clinics. The clinics will be identified prior to the study based on similar demographics, service utilization and staff capacity. Once the three clinics are identified they will be selected to one of the three study conditions. This research will be conducted in collaboration with the University of Illinois (UIUC), AmeriCares, and the Royal Health Awareness Society (RHAS) of Jordan. AmeriCares will work as the operational humanitarian organization collaborating with and providing support to RHAS and UIUC. RHAS's healthy community clinic is a community-based health project launched in 2011 conducted with the Ministry of Health (MOH). The project aims to build the capacity of participating Health Centers to provide better preventative services to empower patients to manage their diseases and reduce future complications. The Healthy Community Clinic, established within existing MOH facilities, provides medical practitioners with the training and resources necessary to implement management and prevention-based care to patients in underserved communities.

Conditions

• Mental Stress
• Hypertension
• Diabetes

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Healthy community clinic NCD+MH

NCD+MH Awareness Intervention Overview: i. Patients are assigned, at minimum, one health awareness lecture per month with a total of 28 lectures possible ii. Patients attend lectures on specific topics given by MoH staff, mainly nurses. iii. Topics tackled include: Diabetes, Hypertension, Asthma, Cardiovascular Disease, Reproductive Health, Healthy Nutrition, Smoking, Emotional Wellness, Stress Relief and Positive Coping. iv. Group nutrition and physical fitness counselling are incorporated into most health awareness lectures

BEHAVIORAL

Healthy community clinic NCD

i. Patients are assigned, at minimum, one health awareness lecture per month with a total of 24 lectures possible ii. Patients attend lectures on specific topics given by MoH staff, mainly nurses. iii. Topics tackled include: Diabetes, Hypertension, Asthma, Cardiovascular Disease, Reproductive Health, Healthy Nutrition, and Smoking iv. Group nutrition and physical fitness counselling are incorporated into most health awareness lectures

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Americares

  collaborator OTHER

• Royal Health Awareness Society

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Tara Powell, PhD · University of Illinois at Chicago

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-04-30

Primary Completion

2017-07-30

Completion

2019-04-30

Countries

• Jordan

Study Locations