TEXT MY BP MEDS NOLA: A pilot study of text-messaging and social support to increase hypertension medication adherence.

Study Objective: Non-Hispanic Black (NHB) adults have high hypertension (HTN) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden. Medication nonadherence limits control and self-measured blood pressure (SMBP) improves diagnosis and adherence. This predominantly NHB cohort pilot, via community-clinical linkages, with uncontrolled HTN and low adherence, utilized bidirectional electronic messaging (BEM) with team-care, to assess medication adherence, quality of life, and BP.

Hypertension in African Americans: Advances in community outreach and public health approaches.

While there have been significant advances made towards controlling cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality in recent decades, African- Americans continue to experience a markedly elevated burden of CVD. Multiple factors have contributed to this major public health crisis, including medication adherence, racial inequities in diagnosis and treatment, lack of culturally competent care, and disparities in healthcare access. Historical approaches to reduce this burden are targeted towards community outreach by recruiting community partners and healthcare providers to disseminate health information on CVD awareness and prevention.

The CardioMetabolic Health Alliance: Working Toward a New Care Model for the Metabolic Syndrome.

The Cardiometabolic Think Tank was convened on June 20, 2014, in Washington, DC, as a "call to action" activity focused on defining new patient care models and approaches to address contemporary issues of cardiometabolic risk and disease. Individual experts representing >20 professional organizations participated in this roundtable discussion. The Think Tank consensus was that the metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a complex pathophysiological state comprised of a cluster of clinically measured and typically unmeasured risk factors, is progressive in its course, and is associated with serious and extensive comorbidity, but tends to be clinically under-recognized.

Community-based approaches to prevention and management of hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

Community hypertension (HTN) outreach seeks to improve public health by identifying HTN and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks. In the 1980s, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) funded multiple positive community studies. Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program addresses CVD risks.

Trends in hypertension treatment in diabetes.

This review discusses current concepts and future trends in the optimal control of elevated blood pressure and hypertension in persons with diabetes, specifically type 2 diabetes mellitus. Although the primary management for persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus, especially with lower levels of blood pressure elevation, is modification or reversal of adverse lifestyles, including weight management and increased physical activity, pharmacologic antihypertensive treatment is usually necessary to optimally control cardiovascular and renal risks. Therapies that modulate the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system may be beneficial in reducing associated cardiovascular and renal diseases, but control of elevated blood pressure remains an essential target of any antihypertensive therapy.

Race-based therapy for hypertension: possible benefits and potential pitfalls.

Hypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which includes coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke. This article examines the possible benefits and potential pitfalls of utilizing race-based categories for antihypertensive therapy. Although the use of race and ethnicity to guide antihypertensive treatment is fraught with difficulty and is, to a large extent, inadequate, there may be benefit in recognizing specific aspects of race and ethnicity when approaching patients with hypertension.

Fast-food consumption among US adults and children: dietary and nutrient intake profile.

Objective: To examine the dietary profile associated with fast-food use. To compare the dietary intake of individuals on the day that they ate fast food with the day that fast food was not eaten.

Design: Cross-sectional study design.

Contemporary treatment of heart failure: is there adequate evidence to support a unique strategy for African-Americans? Con position.

Heart failure is a substantial cause of increased morbidity and mortality in the African-American population, with poorer prognosis versus white patients. Systolic heart failure is predominantly caused by poorly controlled hypertension in African-Americans. Overall, African-Americans remain underrepresented in morbidity and mortality heart failure trials, and further data are needed to confirm the potential benefit of present therapies and newer approaches to heart failure in African-Americans.