Health and Faith Working to Control Blood Pressure

Faith community nursing programs have grown out of churches as a response to the inequity of healthcare delivery to uninsured and underinsured communities. These programs provide outreach to community members and extend their services beyond just the parishioners of the churches, reaching more uninsured people than traditional medical services. Although faith community nursing programs have been established throughout the United States, no evaluation of these programs has been done. QueensCare is taking the lead in measuring the effect of parish nurses on health outcomes. In this project we have one specific aim: to measure the effect of parish nurse visits on blood pressure control on community-dwelling hypertensive patients. Our study will involve recruiting hypertensive patients from parish nurse led health fairs and interviewing subjects at the time of recruitment. Patients will either be randomized to parish nurse visits or primary care physician appointments. We will have a 4-month follow-up period with a re-check of blood pressures and an exit interview of the patient. From this study, we hope to better understand if parish nurse visits improve blood pressure and medication compliance among hypertensive patients.

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Key information

Conditions

Hypertension Cardiovascular Diseases Vascular Diseases

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

We will be including adults who are 18 years and older who have attended a health fair or screening event at one of QueensCare Health and Faith Partnership parish nurse sponsored church events in Los Angeles.
Patients must be either English or Spanish speaking.
Patients will be enrolled by blood pressure readings at the screening event. We will be using the JNC 71 criteria for diagnosing hypertension.
Patients with blood pressures above 140/90 will be defined as hypertensive.
Diagnosed and previously undiagnosed hypertensive patients will be included in the study.
The patient must also be able to come to the follow-up appointment in 4 months.

Exclusion criteria

Pregnant women will not be included in the study.
Patients who do not speak English or Spanish will be excluded from the study since we do not have the capacity to translate all our materials into multiple languages.
Those deemed by the research assistant to be incapable to give informed consent (due to intoxication, dementia, or other causes) will also be excluded from the study.
Patients younger than 18 years old will be excluded from the study.
Patients who have seen a parish nurse in her office hours in the past 6 months will be excluded from the study. We do not want patients who have an already established relationship with a parish nurse to be enrolled in the study with the chance of being randomized to the physician-only arm, which would interrupt the continuity of care the patient is receiving from the parish nurse.

Treatment and study plan

Parish nurse visit

Other

One visit with the parish nurse in 2 weeks

Primary outcomes

Drop of 12.5 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure

Time frame: within 4 months

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of California, Los Angeles

Other

Collaborators

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Registry information

Official study title

Health and Faith Working Together to Control Blood Pressure

Important dates

Study start: 2006
Primary completion: 2007
Study completion: 2007
First posted: Sep 26, 2007
Registry last updated: Apr 14, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.

Completed