A Systematic Review of the Hill-Bone Compliance to Blood Pressure Therapy Scale.

Background: Poor medication adherence hampers hypertension control and increases the risk of adverse health outcomes. Medication adherence can be measured with direct and indirect methods. The Hill-Bone Compliance to High Blood Pressure Therapy (HBCHBPT) Scale, one of the most popular adherence measures, indirectly assesses adherence to hypertension therapy in three behavioral domains: appointment keeping, diet and medication adherence.

Integrating community voices in the research continuum: Perspectives on a consultation service.

The Community Research Advisory Council (C-RAC) of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research was established in 2009 to provide community-engaged research consultation services. In 2016-2017, C-RAC members and researchers were surveyed on their consultation experiences. Survey results and a 2019 stakeholder meeting proceeding helped redesign the consultation services.

Comparing Self-Management Programs with and without Peer Support among Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Clinical Trial.

Self-management support (SMS) is an essential component of care for patients who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but there is little evidence on how to provide SMS most effectively to these patients. Peer support (i.e.

The benefits and challenges of established peer support programmes for patients, informal caregivers, and healthcare providers.

Purpose: Peer support programmes that provide services for various health conditions have been in existence for many years; however, there is little study of their benefits and challenges. Our goal was to explore how existing peer support programmes help patients with a variety of health conditions, the challenges that these programmes meet, and how they are addressed.

Methods: We partnered with 7 peer support programmes operating in healthcare and community settings and conducted 43 semi-structured interviews with key informants.

Exploring community engaged research experiences and preferences: a multi-level qualitative investigation.

Background: Community engagement may make research more relevant, translatable, and sustainable, hence improving the possibility of reducing health disparities. The purpose of this study was to explore strategies for community engagement adopted by research teams and identify areas for enhancing engagement in future community engaged research.

Methods: The Community Engagement Program of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research hosted a forum to engage researchers and community partners in group discussion to reflect on their diverse past and current experiences in planning, implementing, and evaluating community engagement in health research.

Social Determinants of Health as Potential Influencers of a Collaborative Care Intervention for Patients with Hypertension.

Objectives: The use of collaborative care teams, comprising nurse care managers and community health workers, has emerged as a promising strategy to tackle hypertension disparities by addressing patients' social determinants of health. We sought to identify which social determinants of health are associated with a patient's likelihood of engaging with collaborative care team members and with the nurse care manager's likelihood of enlisting community health workers (CHW) to provide additional support to patients.

Methods: We conducted a within-group longitudinal analysis of patients assigned to receive a collaborative care intervention in a pragmatic, cluster randomized trial that aims to reduce disparities in hypertension control (N=888).

Methodology and baseline characteristics of a randomized controlled trial testing a health care professional and peer-support program for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: The BREATHE2 study.

Background: Self-management support (SMS) for patients with COPD can improve health-related quality of life (HRQOL). However, it remains unclear what SMS strategies are most effective. Using peer support to advance self-management is promising, as peer supporters possess credibility and can serve as role models.

Hypertension Self-management in Socially Disadvantaged African Americans: the Achieving Blood Pressure Control Together (ACT) Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial.

Background: Effective hypertension self-management interventions are needed for socially disadvantaged African Americans, who have poorer blood pressure (BP) control compared to others.

Objective: We studied the incremental effectiveness of contextually adapted hypertension self-management interventions among socially disadvantaged African Americans.

Design: Randomized comparative effectiveness trial.

Effect of a Hospital-Initiated Program Combining Transitional Care and Long-term Self-management Support on Outcomes of Patients Hospitalized With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Patients hospitalized for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations have high rehospitalization rates and reduced quality of life.

Objective: To evaluate whether a hospital-initiated program that combined transition and long-term self-management support for patients hospitalized due to COPD and their family caregivers can improve outcomes.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Single-site randomized clinical trial conducted in Baltimore, Maryland, with 240 participants.

Overcoming Barriers to Sustaining Health Equity Interventions: Insights from the National Institutes of Health Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities.

We conducted qualitative semi-structured telephone interviews with the directors of the 10 National Institutes of Health Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities (NIH/CPHHD) to identify factors that were associated with the sustainability of 19 interventions developed to address cancer disparities and 17 interventions developed to address cardiovascular disease disparities in the United States. Interview transcripts were analyzed using the constant comparative method of analysis to identify key themes and synthesize findings. Directors at NIH/CPHHD reported that barriers to sustainability included uncertainty about future funding and insufficient resources to build and maintain diverse stakeholder partnerships.

The Baltimore Community-Based Organizations Neighborhood Network: Enhancing Capacity Together (CONNECT) Cluster RCT.

Introduction: This cluster RCT aimed to reduce healthcare utilization and increase the referral of patients between an academic health center and local community-based organizations (CBOs) that address social determinants of health.

Study Design: Cluster RCT.

Settings/participants: Twenty-two CBOs located in Baltimore, Maryland, were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group, and 5,255 patients were allocated to the intervention or control group based on whether they lived closer to an intervention or control CBO.

Patient-level Predictors of Extent of Exposure to a Community Health Worker Intervention in a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Community health worker (CHW) interventions have been cited as a best practice for reducing health disparities, but patient-level attributes may contribute to differential uptake. We examined patient characteristics associated with the extent of exposure to a CHW coaching intervention among a predominantly low-income, African American population participating in a randomized controlled trial of hypertension interventions.

Design: We conducted a within-group longitudinal analysis of those receiving a CHW intervention from a study conducted between September 2003 and August 2005.

Community Engagement to Address Cancer Health Disparities: A Process EVALUATION using the Partnership Self-Assessment Tool.

Background: African Americans suffer disproportionately from cancer health disparities, and population-level prevention is needed.

Objectives: A community-academic partnership to address cancer health disparities in two predominately African American jurisdictions in Maryland was evaluated.

Methods: The Partnership Self-Assessment Tool (PSAT) was used in a process evaluation to assess the partnership in eight domains (partnership synergy, leadership, efficiency, management, resources, decision making, participation, and satisfaction).

Baltimore CONNECT: A Randomized Trial to Build Partnership Between Community Organizations and a Local Health System.

Background: Community-based organizations (CBOs) are key partners in supporting care, but health systems and CBOs operate in silos. Baltimore Community-based Organizations Neighborhood Network: Enhancing Capacity Together (CONNECT) was a randomized, controlled trial based on the core tenets of the World Health Organization's (WHO) African Partnerships for Patient Safety Community Engagement (ACE) approach.

Objectives: We describe a research protocol and lessons learned from a partnership between Johns Hopkins Health System and 11 CBOs.

Effect of a Program Combining Transitional Care and Long-term Self-management Support on Outcomes of Hospitalized Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Patients hospitalized for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations have high rehospitalization rates and reduced quality of life.

Objective: To evaluate a hospital-initiated program that combined transition and long-term self-management support for patients hospitalized due to COPD and their family caregivers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This single-site randomized clinical trial was conducted in Baltimore, Maryland, with 240 participants.

Correlates of Patterns of Health Values of African Americans Living With HIV/AIDS: Implications for Advance Care Planning and HIV Palliative Care.

Context: Advance care planning rates remain low, especially among people who are HIV positive, disadvantaged, and African American. Although advance care planning can be a sensitive topic for clinicians and patients to discuss, health values clarification can be an important initial step.

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to explore health values of African Americans living with HIV/AIDS and to examine correlates of these values.

From Kisiizi to Baltimore: cultivating knowledge brokers to support global innovation for community engagement in healthcare.

Background: Reverse Innovation has been endorsed as a vehicle for promoting bidirectional learning and information flow between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries, with the aim of tackling common unmet needs. One such need, which traverses international boundaries, is the development of strategies to initiate and sustain community engagement in health care delivery systems.

Objective: In this commentary, we discuss the Baltimore "Community-based Organizations Neighborhood Network: Enhancing Capacity Together" Study.

How Co-Developed Are Community and Academic Partnerships?

Background: The world-renowned resources of Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) in Baltimore, Maryland, stand in marked contrast with the surrounding impoverished neighborhoods. Community-based organizations (CBOs) are critical frontline responders to residents' needs. Baltimore CONNECT, an academic-community partnership, co-developed an intervention to strengthen connections between CBOs and between CBOs and the health care system.

Identifying and Prioritizing the Barriers and Facilitators to the Self-Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Community-Centered Approach.

Objective: Self-management of type 2 diabetes mellitus is crucial to controlling the disease and preventing harm. Multiple factors have been identified in the literature as potential barriers and facilitators to self-management, but the magnitude and directionality of these factors are seldom studied. We sought to develop and test an instrument to identify and quantify the barriers and facilitators to self-management of type 2 diabetes.

Intensity of exposure to a patient activation intervention and patient engagement in medical visit communication.

Objective: We examined associations between intensity of exposure to a community health worker (CHW) delivered communication activation intervention targeting low-income patients with hypertension.

Methods: We analyzed question-asking behaviors of patients assigned to the intervention arms (n=140) in a randomized controlled trial. Intensity of exposure to the intervention was operationalized as the duration of face-to-face coaching and number of protocol-specified topics discussed.

Reaching for Health Equity and Social Justice in Baltimore: The Evolution of an Academic-Community Partnership and Conceptual Framework to Address Hypertension Disparities.

Cardiovascular health disparities persist despite decades of recognition and the availability of evidence-based clinical and public health interventions. Racial and ethnic minorities and adults in urban and low-income communities are high-risk groups for uncontrolled hypertension (HTN), a major contributor to cardiovascular health disparities, in part due to inequitable social structures and economic systems that negatively impact daily environments and risk behaviors. This commentary presents the Johns Hopkins Center to Eliminate Cardiovascular Health Disparities as a case study for highlighting the evolution of an academic-community partnership to overcome HTN disparities.

Tobacco policies and on-premise smoking in bars and clubs that cater to young African Americans following the Maryland Clean Indoor Air Act of 2007.

African American young adults ages 18-25 smoke less than their Caucasian peers, yet the burden of tobacco-related illness is significantly higher in African Americans than in Caucasians across the lifespan. Little is known about how clean indoor air laws affect tobacco smoking among African American young adults. We conducted a systematic observation of bars and clubs with events targeted to African American adults 18-25 in Baltimore City at two timepoints (October and November of 2008 and 2010) after enforcement of the Maryland Clean Indoor Air Act (CIAA).