The objective is to test the efficacy of a patient-centered, culturally relevant narrative intervention, or "storytelling," based on the solid conceptual foundation of the narrative communication theory and the constructs of the Health Belief Model (HBM) to improve medication adherence and outcomes in chronic diseases among African-Americans (AA), using gout as an example. Gout is a chronic disease associated with chronic symptoms and disability interrupted by intermittent acute flares, similar to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) that leads to joint destruction if not treated appropriately. Due to the intermittently symptomatic nature of chronic conditions, patients often don't perceive disease severity and susceptibility to disease complications, and, therefore, may not balance the barriers and benefits to medication adherence. Storytelling in the patients' own voices has the power to directly and more effectively confront a patient's barriers to medication adherence, reinforce the benefits and provide useful cues to action. Storytelling promotes patient engagement when the patient identifies with the storyteller and can lead to a patient's recognition of the need to treat the condition and improve health outcomes, as shown by a meaningful improvement in blood pressure in a recent clinical trial in AAs with hypertension. The success of this project, combined with other published data, will represent a major step toward demonstrating the effectiveness of storytelling to improve medication adherence in chronic diseases and will address two VA research priority areas, i.e., health care disparities and health care delivery.
