Improving Adherence in African American Women With Uncontrolled Hypertension

Abstract

The culturally tailored program used the African American church as a basis for recruitment and implementation of the program that retained all participants over a 6-month period. African American women living in rural Texas who participated in a 6-week intervention program demonstrated a significant decrease in blood pressure over a 6-month period regardless of whether they were in the intervention or control group. In general, they had a relatively good knowledge of HTN and reported an average level of adherence. Future studies using a culturally tailored program with a larger sample size are warranted to decrease the high level of HTN-related complications in African American women.

Turn the Beat Around: A Stroke Prevention Program for African‐American Churches

“…This TBA program significantly enhanced knowledge related to hypertension, heart disease, and stroke. These findings are unlike those of Greer and Ostwald (), who showed no group difference in knowledge; this difference could be related to the differences in question format (true/false vs. multiple choice). While knowledge does not change behavior, knowledge and education are the starting point for such change; personal attitudes toward lifestyle change combined with subjective social norms are powerful influences on behavior.…”

“…This study was designed to assess the feasibility of training CHWs to deliver and pilot a six‐session stroke prevention program. Despite disparate stroke rates among African‐Americans, few researchers have implemented a CVD reduction program in the African‐American church setting (Dodani, Beayler, Lewis, & Sowders, ; Duru et al., ; Greer & Ostwald, ; Lancaster et al., ; Ralston et al., ). Other than Ralston et al.…”

“…Indeed, its merits have led the American Heart Association, American Society of Hypertension, and the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association to endorse the practice to improve BP control (Pickering et al., ). Among the faith‐based CV studies, at least two have demonstrated findings of significant BP reduction (Duru et al., ; Greer & Ostwald, ) similar to TBA. This study enriches the body of literature regarding the impact of a church‐based intervention on BP control.…”

Hypertension Self-management in Socially Disadvantaged African Americans: the Achieving Blood Pressure Control Together (ACT) Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial

“…These barriers include suboptimal self-management skills or support, cultural beliefs about treatment, or logistical barriers to care. [3][4][5][6] Previous studies have suggested beneficial effects of community health workers, BP self-monitoring, decision-support, and selfmanagement training on BP control. 5,[7][8][9][10][11] However, it is unclear whether these interventions, when tailored to their social contexts and combined, could help socially disadvantaged African Americans address these barriers and better engage in their hypertension self-management and clinical care.…”

Self-care management strategies used by Black women who self-report consistent adherence to antihypertensive medication

“… 32 – 35 However, there is little research on medication adherence in samples containing only Black women with HTN. 21 , 36 – 38 No known research exists that underscores predominantly Black women who report the self-care management behavior of consistent adherence to their antihypertensive medication-taking. To capture this aspect of consistent medication-taking, adherence to the treatment regimen from the participant’s viewpoint is important for tailoring nursing interventions that could prove effective in Black female populations and fill this gap in the literature.…”