title: Healthy Heart, Healthy Family: a NHLBI/HRSA collaborative employing community health workers to improve heart health.
abstract: Kokua Kalihi Valley, a federally qualified health center in Hawaii, collaborated with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to test the efficacy of community health workers (CHWs) to deliver the Healthy Heart, Healthy Family curriculum to low-income Filipinos with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. At 12 months, significant improvements were seen in health behaviors, knowledge, and self-efficacy in managing chronic diseases. We also observed decreases in total cholesterol from 186.25 mg/dl to 170.88 mg/dl (p=.001), low-density lipoprotein from 114.43 mg/dl to 103.04 mg/dl (p=.013), and fasting blood glucose from 117.95 mg/dl to 109.07 mg/dl (p=.034). Although these changes were statistically significant, they are small and not clinically meaningful in reducing CVD risk. The high-density lipoprotein was 3.3 mg/dl lower (worse) at 12 months (p=.003), mean values for blood pressure, BMI, and waist circumference increased. Community health workers can be trained to deliver evidence-based curricula that improve health behaviors and increase self-efficacy in managing chronic diseases.
authors.forename: Ritabelle
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: Kathryn L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Jovonni R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Spinner
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sturdevant
authors.forename: Sharonne J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Ancheta
authors.forename: Sheryl R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
authors.forename: Merlita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Compton
authors.forename: Jo-Hsi
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Carolyn J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003150:Community Health Workers; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D054555:National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.); D010679:Philippines / Q000208:ethnology; D011203:Poverty; D012307:Risk Factors; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D020377:Self Efficacy; D014481:United States