• Home
  • Initiatives
  • ​Hypertension - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis & Treatment

Reducing Hypertension Among Disproportionately Affected Populations

The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) works to advance CDC's mission to improve cardiovascular disease by coordinating initiatives that aim to address hypertension. Hypertension is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease, a chronic ailment that impacts millions of adults in the United States. Unmanaged hypertension remains a strong predictor for acute cardiovascular disease such as heart attack, stroke, aneurysm, and heart failure. ACPM dedicates resources, education and advocacy for the prevention of hypertension by partnering with leading health centers around the country.

African American men face a higher incidence of developing hypertension and frequently have fewer public health resources available to help them manage and prevent the disease.

With support from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion: Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, ACPM funds health systems to conduct pilot demonstrations focused on reducing hypertension amongst disproportionately affected populations, specifically Black men and women.

Health Systems Funded by ACPM to Address Hypertension

Cook County Health: The Cook County Health team works to screen patients for transportation, food voucher, medication assisted treatment, substance abuse treatment, while offering hypertension and lifestyle management classes The team at Cook County Health continues to work towards remote patient monitoring and patient medication compliance.

Lincoln Community Health Center: The Lincoln Community Health Center uses graduate and nursing students for patient outreach to Black men with severe hypertension. A multi-disciplinary team provide necessary clinical support, lifestyle medicine classes and screen for social needs barriers/ health harming legal needs and identify policy and legal remedies.

University of Alabama Medical Center: The University of Alabama utilizes a diverse workforce, including residents, medical students, and social workers to screen for social needs using the PRAPARE tool. Their process utilizes a population health tool to continue to monitor and engage Black men to reduce their hypertension rates.

Henry Ford Health: In the Henry Ford Health program, leaders use a tiered approach to engage pharmacists, nurse practitioners, and community health workers for screening and identifying patients with uncontrolled hypertension. Their program continues to change the lives of many as they expand to multiple sites in the communities that need it most.

Emory School of Medicine/Grady Health System: The Emory team developed unique solutions to address hypertension disorders of the pregnancy. Their solutions leverage community health workers to engage and help patients navigate multiple resources including the newly established cardio OB-clinic and the mobile integrated health units.

Grady Health system: Grady developed a nurse-driven protocol to standardize patient screening in a systemized way to enroll patients with custom-tailored hypertension management plans. Their team addressed social determinants of health by providing solutions to food insecurity and transportation barriers.

 

Goals of the Pilot Demonstration Projects

  • Screening, testing, and referral of individuals with or at risk for hypertension.
  • Engage disproportionately affected populations with uncontrolled hypertension (especially Black men and women)  in lifestyle education and self-measured blood pressure monitoring (SMBP).
  • Addressing social needs and determinants of health that are barriers to controlling blood pressure.
  • Using data to track, report, and improve outcomes.

Continuing Medical Education (CME) opportunities:

  1. https://learn.acpm.org/Admin/ActivityDetails.aspx?LearningActivityID=9999 Reducing Hypertension in High-Risk Populations: Empowering Patients to Improve Blood Pressure
  2. https://learn.acpm.org/Admin/ActivityDetails.aspx?LearningActivityID=15867 Hypertension and Health Equity: Putting the Power in the Patient’s Hands through Self-Monitoring Blood Pressure-
 

Non-CME Learning Opportunities:

  1. Stories: Hypertension Control is About People
  2. CDC/ACPM Reducing Hypertension Among Priority Populations: Learning Collaborative Listening Session
  3. Poster presented at APHA 2022
  4. Writing for Quality Improvement: A Walk Through SQUIRE Guidelines Using an Example QI Project Addressing Hypertension Control Among Black Men
  5. Guiding your hypertension improvement journey: A practical approach for busy healthcare teams engaged in quality improvement work
  6. Empowering Patients to Improve Blood Pressure
  7. Outreach to African-Americans before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic
  8. Dr. Keith Ferdinand on Reducing Hypertension Among African Americans
 

Evidence-Based Resources

 

Partners

 

Disclaimer / Attribution

This project is supported by the American College of Preventive Medicine through a Cooperative Agreement (CDC-RFA-OT18-1802) with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support (CSTLTS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents are solely the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

If you would like to learn more about this project, please send a request to Karissa Becknel, an ACPM Program Manager, at kbecknel@acpm.org.