PTSC: Improving Hypertension Control Among Poor Midlife African American Women

Summary

African American women are more likely to suffer higher rates of uncontrolled hypertension than non-Hispanic white women. Prime Time Sister Circles® (PTSC) empowers women to proactively manage their blood pressure by promoting the effective use of preventive health care; encouraging self monitoring of blood pressure, and teaching strategies for managing stress, increasing physical activity, and improving nutrition. The 12-week community-based, holistic lifestyle intervention aims to improve blood pressure control by improving health knowledge, health efficacy, and health behaviors. PTSC potentially reduces health care costs through prevention, earlier detection, and improved management of hypertension through a culturally tailored program addressing specific barriers experienced by midlife and late life African American women.

This 5-year study is a collaboration between The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions (HCHDS), The Gaston \& Porter Health Improvement Center, Inc. (GPHIC), and the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The investigators seek to determine the impact and cost-effectiveness of the PTSC intervention among low-income African American women with uncontrolled hypertension. To do this, the investigators will randomly assign 600 women between the ages of 40 and 75 who receive their care from an federally qualified health center (FQHC) to either PTSC (n=300) or a comparison group (n=300) who will receive the PTSC intervention after they have been observed for 15 month. Using data from in person surveys and clinical measures conducted during in-person data collection meetings, the investigative team will determine if PTSC help low-income African American women effectively manage their blood pressure.

Conditions

• Uncontrolled Hypertension
• BMI
• Stress
• Medication Adherence

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Prime Time Sister Circle

The PTSC is a multi-faceted, facilitated, curriculum- and community-based, intensive, support group intervention with 25-30 mid-life African American women per group.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• American Institutes for Research

  collaborator OTHER

• The Gaston & Porter Health Improvement Center, Inc.

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Darrell J Gaskin, PhD · Johns Hopkins University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

40 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-07-14

Primary Completion

2019-03-19

Completion

2020-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations