Therapeutic Lifestyle Intervention in Church Helpful for BP Control

Intervention plus motivational interviewing better than health education alone for black adults
black man smiling
black man smiling

TUESDAY, Oct. 30, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- A therapeutic lifestyle change (TLC) intervention plus motivational interviewing (MINT) sessions delivered in churches can reduce systolic blood pressure (BP) among blacks compared with health education (HE) alone, according to a study published online Oct. 9 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Antoinette M. Schoenthaler, Ed.D., from the New York University School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues examined the comparative effectiveness of a TLC intervention plus MINT sessions versus HE alone on BP among black adults with uncontrolled hypertension. Data were obtained for 373 participants with self-reported diagnosis of hypertension and uncontrolled BP from 32 New York City churches.

The researchers found a greater systolic BP reduction of 5.79 mmHg for the MINT-TLC intervention compared with the HE group at six months (P = 0.029). The treatment effect on systolic BP persisted at nine months, although significance was attenuated (5.21 mmHg; P = 0.068). At six months, the between-group differences in diastolic BP reduction (0.41 mmHg) and mean arterial pressure (2.24 mmHg) were not significant. Greater BP control was seen with the MINT-TLC intervention than in the HE group at nine months, although the difference was not significant (57 versus 48.8 percent; odds ratio, 1.43; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.9 to 2.28).

"A community-based lifestyle intervention delivered in churches led to significantly greater reduction in systolic BP in hypertensive blacks compared with HE alone," the authors write.

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