title: Rationale and design of the Baptist Employee Healthy Heart Study: a randomized trial assessing the efficacy of the addition of an interactive, personalized, web-based, lifestyle intervention tool to an existing health information web platform in a high-risk employee population.
abstract: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and diabetes confer a high risk for developing subsequent cardiovascular disease (CVD). Persons with MetS constitute 24-34 % of the employee population at Baptist Health South Florida (BHSF), a self-insured healthcare organization. The Baptist Employee Healthy Heart Study (BEHHS) aims to assess the addition of a personalized, interactive, web-based, nutrition-management and lifestyle-management program to the existing health-expertise web platform available to BHSF employees in reducing and/or stabilizing CVD and lifestyle risk factors and markers of subclinical CVD.
  
  
  
  Subjects with MetS or Type II Diabetes will be recruited from an employee population at BHSF and randomized to either an intervention or a control arm. The intervention arm will be given access to a web-based personalized diet-modification and weight-modification program. The control arm will be reminded to use the standard informational health website available and accessible to all BHSF employees. Subjects will undergo coronary calcium testing, carotid intima-media thickness scans, peripheral arterial tonometry, and advanced lipid panel testing at visit 1, in addition to lifestyle and medical history questionnaires. All tests will be repeated at visits 2 and 4 with the exception of the coronary calcium test, which will only be performed at baseline and visit 4. Visit 3 will capture vitals, anthropometrics, and responses to the questionnaires only.
  
  
  
  Results of this study will provide information on the effectiveness of personalized, web-based, lifestyle-management tools in reducing healthcare costs, promoting healthy choices, and reducing cardiovascular risk in an employee population. It will also provide information about the natural history of carotid atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction in asymptomatic but high-risk populations.
  
  
  
  ClinicalTrials.gov registry, NCT01912209 . Registered on 3 July 2013.
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Janisse M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Post
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.|University of Manchester School of Medicine, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Shozab S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Lara L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Roberson
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.|Robert Stempel College of Public Health, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Ehimen C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Aneni
authors.affiliation: Aventura Hospital & Medical Center, Aventura, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Sameer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shaharyar
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Adnan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Younus
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Jamal
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Rameez
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Muhammad A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Aziz
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Rehan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Erica S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Spatz
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Theodore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Feldman
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fialkow
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.|Robert Stempel College of Public Health, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Emir
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Veledar
authors.affiliation: Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, Baptist Health South Florida, Miami, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Ricardo C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Cury
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA.
authors.forename: Arthur S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Agatston
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes, Baptist Health Medical Group, 1691 Michigan Avenue Suite 500, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, USA. KhurramN@baptisthealth.net.|Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, Baptist Health South Florida, Miami, FL, USA. KhurramN@baptisthealth.net.|Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. KhurramN@baptisthealth.net.|Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA. KhurramN@baptisthealth.net.|Robert Stempel College of Public Health, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA. KhurramN@baptisthealth.net.
authors.forename: Khurram
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nasir
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008019:Life Style; D009786:Occupational Health Services; D012107:Research Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Cardiovascular disease; Diabetes; Metabolic syndrome