Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Self-Management in Three Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Pilot Randomized Trial.

Objectives: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries. Health systems are ill prepared to manage the increase in COPD cases. Methods: We performed a pilot effectiveness-implementation randomized field trial of a community health worker (CHW)-supported, 1-year self-management intervention in individuals with COPD grades B-D. The study took place in low-resource settings of Nepal, Peru, and Uganda. The primary outcome was the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) score at 1 year. We evaluated differences in moderate to severe exacerbations, all-cause hospitalizations, and the EuroQol score (EQ-5D-3 L) at 12 months. Measurements and Main Results: We randomly assigned 239 participants (119 control arm, 120 intervention arm) with grades B-D COPD to a multicomponent, CHW-supported intervention or standard of care and COPD education. Twenty-five participants (21%) died or were lost to follow-up in the control arm compared with 11 (9%) in the intervention arm. At 12 months, there was no difference in mean total SGRQ score between the intervention and control arms (34.7 vs. 34.0 points; adjusted mean difference, 1.0; 95% confidence interval, -4.2, 6.1; P = 0.71). The intervention arm had a higher proportion of hospitalizations than the control arm (10% vs. 5.2%; adjusted odds ratio, 2.2; 95% confidence interval, 0.8, 7.5; P = 0.15) at 12 months. Conclusions: A CHW-based intervention to support self-management of acute exacerbations of COPD in three resource-poor settings did not result in differences in SGRQ scores at 1 year. Fidelity was high, and intervention engagement was moderate. Although these results cannot differentiate between a failed intervention or implementation, they nonetheless suggest that we need to revisit our strategy. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03359915).

Health literacy enhanced intervention for inner-city African Americans with uncontrolled diabetes: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Disparities in diagnosis and control of type 2 diabetes mellitus are most evident in African Americans (AAs) with lower socioeconomic status. Health literacy is an important predictor of adequate self-management and control of diabetes. The purpose of this pilot study was to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a health literacy-enhanced diabetes intervention, PLAN 4 Success (Prevention through Lifestyle intervention And Numeracy)-Diabetes, in inner-city, low-income AAs with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Nineteen of 30 participants who completed the baseline survey received the study intervention which consisted of 4-week health literacy training and disease knowledge education followed by two home visits and monthly phone counseling for over 24 weeks. RESULTS: A retention rate of 58% was achieved at 24 weeks. All participants who completed the follow-up assessment at 24 weeks reported high satisfaction with the intervention. Participation in the PLAN 4 Success-Diabetes was associated with improved glucose control and psychological outcomes at 12 weeks but the positive trend was attenuated at 24 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: The current intervention protocols were in general feasible and highly acceptable. The results support health literacy training as a promising component of interventions to promote glucose control among inner-city AAs. Some changes are suggested to optimize the protocols, before conducting a randomized controlled trial. Future interventions should consider addressing social determinants of health such as transportation as part of designing an intervention targeting low-income AAs with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03925948. Registered on 24 April 2019-retrospectively registered.

A Systematic Review of Community Health Center Based Interventions for People with Diabetes.

Community health centers (CHCs) focus on serving socioeconomically disadvantaged populations with heightened chronic disease burden, making CHCs an ideal setting for implementing diabetes care programs that target vulnerable populations. We aimed to synthesize evidence concerning the effects of CHC interventions in people with diabetes. To do this, four electronic databases were searched, including PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Scopus, and hand searches of reference collections were undertaken to identify intervention trials published in English. We screened 892 unique titles and abstracts. Two reviewers then independently evaluated 221 full-text articles. We discovered 29 articles met our eligibility criteria for inclusion. We found 27 unique studies with two companion articles. Seventeen studies were randomized controlled trials and the majority had a higher proportion of female and racial/ethnic minorities in the study sample. CHC interventions often involved either one-on-one or group education sessions supplemented by a phone follow-up that were delivered by health providers, nutritionists, or community health workers. CHC interventions using education sessions combined with follow up via phone generally resulted in significant improvements in hemoglobin A1C, while sole telephone-based education studies showed no significant improvements. CHC interventions had no significant effects on physical activity in all six studies that examined the outcome. Overall, we found that CHC interventions were in general effective in improving glucose control when using face-to-face interactions in low-income, underserved, and racial and ethnic minority patients with diabetes. Evidence was limited, however, in regards to other outcomes which suggests the need for continued evaluations of CHC intervention models.