The impact of the Prime Time Sister Circles® (PTSC) on blood pressure of low-income mid-life African American women in the United States

Darrell J Gaskin; Hossein Zare; Chidinma A Ibe; Manshu Yang; Wehmah Jones; Marilyn Gaston; Gayle Porter; Denise L Woods; Michele Balamani; Nicole Jones; Vivienne A Rose; Richard Allen Williams; Charles Rohde

doi:10.1057/s41271-023-00450-5

The impact of the Prime Time Sister Circles® (PTSC) on blood pressure of low-income mid-life African American women in the United States

J Public Health Policy. 2023 Dec;44(4):616-633. doi: 10.1057/s41271-023-00450-5. Epub 2023 Oct 29.

Authors

Darrell J Gaskin^{1

2}, Hossein Zare^{3

4

5}, Chidinma A Ibe^{3

6}, Manshu Yang⁷, Wehmah Jones⁸, Marilyn Gaston⁹, Gayle Porter⁹, Denise L Woods⁹, Michele Balamani¹⁰, Nicole Jones^{3

4}, Vivienne A Rose¹¹, Richard Allen Williams¹², Charles Rohde^{3

13}

Affiliations

¹ Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. dgaskin1@jhu.edu.
² Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 North Broadway Ste 441, Baltimore, MD, 21205-1900, USA. dgaskin1@jhu.edu.
³ Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁵ Department of Global Health Services and Administration, University of Maryland Global Campus, Adelphi, MD, USA.
⁶ Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA.
⁸ American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC, USA.
⁹ The Gaston & Porter Health Improvement Center, Inc., Washington, DC, USA.
¹⁰ Baraka and Associates, Largo, MD, USA.
¹¹ Baltimore Medical System Inc., Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹² David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹³ Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Abstract

There is a pressing need to develop and evaluate culturally tailored, community-based interventions that address hypertension management among low-income African American women. We employed a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of the Prime Time Sister Circles® Program in reducing blood pressure and body mass index among low-income African American women ages with hypertension. Study participants (N = 339) were African American women aged 40-75 years who were diagnosed with hypertension and received their primary care at government funded health centers in Washington, D.C. Compared to the usual care group, Prime Time Sister Circles® participation was associated with a reduction in systolic BP by - 2.45 (CI - 6.13, 1.23) mmHg, a reduction in diastolic BP by - 3.66 mmHg (CI - 6.32, - 0.99), and a change in BMI by - 0.26 (CI - 2.00, 1.48) from baseline to 15 months. The results suggest that culturally tailored community-based interventions can improve hypertension management in low-income women.

Keywords: African American women; BMI; Community-based behavioral intervention; Hypertension.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Black or African American*
Blood Pressure
Community Health Services
Female
Humans
Hypertension*
Poverty
United States
Washington

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding