News - Hypertension Week of November 2, 2003/ Vol. 2 No. 44

Study: Team Approach Best for Controlling Blood Pressure in Black Men

Just visiting a doctor won't work in lowering the blood pressure of African-American men who live in urban areas. Instead, it takes a team effort, according to a study reported in the November issue of the American Journal of Hypertension.

High blood pressure affects one in four American adults. But among African Americans, high blood pressure occurs more often, begins at an earlier age and is usually more severe than in whites.

Study author Martha Hill of Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and her colleagues studied 309 hypertensive African-American men between the ages of 21 to 54 living in inner-city Baltimore.

The researchers evaluated the effectiveness of a team approach including education, behavior modification and free hypertension medication. The team consisted of a nurse practitioner, community health workers and a physician.

The participants were split into two groups. One group received comprehensive, individualized intervention by the health care team that included nurse practitioner visits every one to three months, free high blood pressure medication and referrals to social services.

The other group received a less intensive intervention including referrals to sources of hypertension care in the community. Men in both groups received reminders of the importance of blood pressure control and were evaluated at the beginning of the intervention and at 12-, 24-, and 36-month intervals.

Although both groups benefited from the extra intervention, blood pressure control rates of the men subjected to the most intensive intervention increased from 17 percent to 44 percent, compared to an increase from 21 percent to 31 percent in the group receiving less intensive intervention.

Other sources: Johns Hopkins