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Community-based mobile intervention improves CV health in black adults
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SAN ANTONIO — A community-based wellness program that integrates the use of a mobile app improved the CV health of black adults, according to research presented at the American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention.
The research was selected as the winning Young Investigator poster at this year’s meeting.
LaPrincess C. Brewer, MD, MPH, FACC, FACP, FASPC, cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues analyzed data from 50 black adults (70% women) recruited from five predominantly black churches who used a mobile app as part of a mobile health lifestyle intervention. The intervention duration was 10 weeks, with participant follow-up conducted at 28 weeks post-intervention.
The Fostering African American Improvement in Total Health (FAITH!) CV health and wellness program is the first community-based research partnership with Mayo Clinic in Rochester and local black church congregations with the aim to promote CV health. FAITH is also the first community-based intervention that utilizes the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 metric.
The mobile app features education modules, motivational testimonials, recipes, a sharing board and a health tracking feature.
“Our education module includes pre- and post-assessments,” Brewer said. “There are also videos delivered by health professionals and supplemental brochure content. Our community partners were very adamant that integration of biblical scriptures and spiritual messaging was very key to cultural tailoring of our app, something that we did not think of initially.”
According to data presented here, the intervention was well received by the participants. The researchers recorded high acceptability (mean overall rating, 9 out of 10) and usability (overall score, 4.4 out of 5) among 36 patients. Overall satisfaction was also high, with an overall score of 92.9. The rate of study retention at 28 weeks after the intervention was 98%.
At 28 weeks after the intervention, systolic BP improved from 133.3 mm Hg at baseline to 127.1 mm Hg (P = .002) and diastolic BP improved from 82.8 mm Hg at baseline to 77.1 mm Hg (P = .0004), according to Brewer.
Additionally, participants increased their intake of fruits and vegetables from 3.4 servings per day to 4.5 servings per day (P < .0001), moderate physical activity from 35 minutes per week to 75 minutes per week (P = .04) and average Life’s Simple 7 composite score from 8.3 to 9 in the ideal range (P = .05), Brewer said during the presentation.
Future plans for this community-based mobile health intervention include refinement, a randomized controlled trial including more churches, and application within clinical settings and community health workers, according to Brewer.
“Formative and community-based participatory research approaches are useful to design a culturally relevant mHealth lifestyle intervention to address cardiovascular health disparities within the African American community,” Brewer said. “It also supports the use of an iterative development process in implementing mHealth lifestyle interventions for racial/ethnic minority communities.”
Data from the FAITH! App Pilot Study were recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. – by Darlene Dobkowski
References:
Brewer LC. Session 4: Young Investigator Presentations. Presented at: American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention; July 19-21, 2019; San Antonio.
Brewer LC, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2019;doi:10.1007/s11606-019-04936-5.
Disclosure: Brewer reports no relevant financial disclosures.