Peer Group Support Intervention to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Risk for African American Men According to Life’s Simple 7 in Faith-Based Communities

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Adverse cardiovascular health disparities persist for African American men. Although changing health behaviors is perhaps one of the most effective methods to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related deaths, previous behavior change programs targeting single or multiple CVD risk factors in target groups have had mixed success. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether a multi-faceted peer group intervention model based on American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 was feasible, safe, acceptable, and efficacious in producing meaningful risk reduction for African American men.Methods: A convenience sample of 24 African American men with at least one CVD risk factor participated quasi-experimental study having peer intervention vs. nonequivalent comparison groups, with pretest-posttests at two church sites in Minneapolis, MN (MPLS) and Washington, D.C. (DC). Feasibility, safety, acceptability, and potential efficacy were assessed by examining completion of peer group sessions, adverse events, attendance, attrition, within and between-group changes in measures using nonparametric statistics.Results: All twenty-four men completed the study with no study-related adverse symptoms and medical events. The peer groups had moderate to high attendance, and the peer program evaluation was highly positive among participants. Between baseline and 6-months, there were significant differences between the intervention and the comparison group in cholesterol levels and weights (p= .041,p= .034, respectively) at one site (DC). There were no significant between-group changes at the other site (MPLS).Implication for Practice: The multi-faceted peer support intervention was feasible, acceptable, and shown to have potential efficacy to reduce CVD risk for highly motivated African American men. Future studies with a larger sample size are needed to test the effectiveness of this intervention model to reduce CVD risk among African American men.