title: Who is being reached for a telephone-delivered intervention for patients with uncontrolled hypertension?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Telephone-delivered interventions to provide health counseling for complex chronic medical conditions are convenient, acceptable, and cost-effective. However, little is known about which patients are reached, their characteristics, and who benefits most from telephone-delivered counseling.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study examined whether baseline characteristics are predictive of being easily reached for a monthly, telephone-delivered behavioral intervention to improve treatment adherence in Veterans with uncontrolled hypertension. Participants were to complete a telephone session once a month for 6 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants completed an average of 5.71 out of a possible 6 sessions. Participants who were unmarried, African American, unemployed, or younger or did not complete high school required significantly more call attempts per completed session.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, telephone-delivered counseling is a feasible approach to reaching hypertensive patients. Patients who are married, Hispanic, retired, or older or graduated college may be easier to reach and engage in telephone-delivered counseling. Reaching patients with other sociodemographic characteristics may require more resources or alternate methods.
authors.affiliation: 1 VA New York Harbor Healthcare System , New York, New York.
authors.forename: Jennifer P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Friedberg
authors.forename: Donald J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Robinaugh
authors.forename: Binhuan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Allegrante
authors.forename: Stuart R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Lipsitz
authors.forename: Sundar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Natarajan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D055118:Medication Adherence; D008875:Middle Aged; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013689:Telephone; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans