Project Seeks to Improve Medication Adherence Among Vulnerable Populations with High Blood Pressure

AMHERST, Mass. – A University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher is one of the lead investigators who have received a five-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to improve medication adherence among vulnerable populations with hypertension, or high blood pressure.

The grant will support a practice-based clinical trial of a new medication adherence intervention at Caring Health Center, a community health center in Springfield. The study will test a program using a pharmacist-community health worker team working with African-American, Latino and Vietnamese patients to help them stay on track with their blood pressure medication.

Image

Nearly half (47%) of adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and racial and ethnic minority groups are at disproportionate risk for high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

In previous research, co-lead investigator Susan J. Shaw, an associate professor in the department of health promotion and policy in the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, found barriers to medication adherence, including low health literacy, medication cost, food insecurity and limited transportation access among diverse, low-income patients with high blood pressure.

“People don’t take their medications for many different reasons, whether it’s medication co-pays that are too expensive or side effects or worries about their medications. Our study is designed to test the efficacy of a multidimensional intervention to help address those barriers with tailored clinical and social resources,” says Shaw, director of the UMass Amherst Center for Community Health Equity Research.

Shaw is collaborating with co-lead investigator Jeannie Lee, an associate professor in the University of Arizona Coit College of Pharmacy. “Although available therapies are highly effective in preventing adverse consequences of hypertension, nonadherence to medications is common,” Lee says.

For the new study, Shaw and colleagues designed a holistic program based on the previous research and feedback from health center staff gathered over two years. The intervention will include a medication therapy management pharmacist uniting with a community health worker to optimize medication regimens and address barriers to adherence through culturally relevant education and support of patients.

The study team at Caring Health Center is led by Cristina Huebner Torres, the center’s chief research and population health officer who earned her Ph.D. in epidemiology in 2018 from UMass Amherst. The team also includes several other recent UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences graduates.

“Our interprofessional research team brings diverse expertise to this study, which builds on our previous research and on valuable practice innovations at Caring Health Center,” Shaw says. “If demonstrated effective, this innovative intervention offers a sustainable approach to reduce cardiovascular burden for vulnerable populations.”