Therapeutic Lifestyle Intervention in Church Helpful for BP Control

TUESDAY, Oct. 30, 2018 (HealthDay News) — A therapeutic lifestyle change (TLC) intervention plus motivational interviewing (MINT) sessions delivered in churches can reduce systolic blood pressure (BP) among blacks compared with health education (HE) alone, according to a study published online Oct. 9 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Antoinette M. Schoenthaler, Ed.D., from the New York University School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues examined the comparative effectiveness of a TLC intervention plus MINT sessions versus HE alone on BP among black adults with uncontrolled hypertension. Data were obtained for 373 participants with self-reported diagnosis of hypertension and uncontrolled BP from 32 New York City churches.

The researchers found a greater systolic BP reduction of 5.79 mmHg for the MINT-TLC intervention compared with the HE group at six months (P = 0.029). The treatment effect on systolic BP persisted at nine months, although significance was attenuated (5.21 mmHg; P = 0.068). At six months, the between-group differences in diastolic BP reduction (0.41 mmHg) and mean arterial pressure (2.24 mmHg) were not significant. Greater BP control was seen with the MINT-TLC intervention than in the HE group at nine months, although the difference was not significant (57 versus 48.8 percent; odds ratio, 1.43; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.9 to 2.28).

“A community-based lifestyle intervention delivered in churches led to significantly greater reduction in systolic BP in hypertensive blacks compared with HE alone,” the authors write.

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