Elena Vasti|Mark J. Pletcher
Recruiting Student Health Coaches to Improve Digital Blood Pressure Management: Randomized Controlled Pilot Study
University of California, San Francisco|University of California, San Francisco
background hypertension significant problem united states affecting 1 3 adults aged 18 years associated higher risk cardiovascular disease stroke prevalence hypertension increased medically underserved areas muas mobile health technologies digital selfmonitoring devices shown improve management chronic health conditions however patients muas reduced access devices limited resources low health literacy health coaches peer training programs potentially costeffective solution shortage physicians available manage hypertension muas activating young people student health coaches shcs promising strategy improve community health objective pilot study aims assess 1 feasibility training high school students health technology coaches muas 2 whether addition shcs digital home monitoring improves frequency selfmonitoring overall blood pressure bp control methods total 15 high school students completed 3day health coach training patients documented diagnosis hypertension randomly assigned 1 3 intervention arms qardioarm alone q group provided qardioarm cuff convenience shc alone group instructed meet health coach 30 min week 5 weeks create action plans reducing bp studentqardioarm sq group received interventions results participants n27 randomly assigned 3 groups ratio 999 15 students completed training 40 615 students completed 5 meetings assigned patient barriers feasibility included transportation patient response dropoff end study overall 92 1112 students rated experience good higher 69 913 reported experience made likely go medical field statistically significant difference frequency cuff use sq vs q groups 37 vs 17 plt001 participants sq group reported better bp control intervention compared groups average bp end intervention 14584 sd 918 mm hg 15085 sd 1812 mm hg 12869 sd 2014 mm hg q sq groups respectively conclusions pilot study demonstrates feasibility pairing technology young student coaches although challenges existed sq group used cuff q group patients engaged sq group reporting higher satisfaction shc better control bp